The San Jose Sharks signed Macklin Celebrini to a five-year contract extension today, locking in the 20-year-old center after a season that made him the clear face of the franchise. The deal is worth $18.8 million AAV, and Mike Grier announced it for the Sharks.
Celebrini said he could not be happier to sign an extension today, a short line that matched the size of the moment for a team trying to build around him. He finished fourth in the NHL with 115 points in the regular season, tied for fourth with 45 goals and seventh with 70 assists, while setting the Sharks franchise scoring record with his final point of the campaign.
That production did more than fill a stat sheet. Celebrini’s 82 even-strength points and 37 even-strength goals were both the most ever in a single campaign by a Shark, and he factored into 46.2 percent of all Sharks goals. The team went 26-6-2 when he scored, 37-18-5 when he posted at least one point and 26-3-2 in his multi-point efforts, numbers that explain why the club wanted the extension now.
There is also the gap between Celebrini’s output and everything around it. The Sharks finished 56 points behind their next-closest scorer, a reminder that the brightest piece of their future was carrying far more than his share in the present. Even so, the organization is treating that imbalance as a reason for optimism, not caution, and Pat Brisson said Mike Grier and Hasso Plattner were fully committed to Celebrini’s future in San Jose.
Grier said Celebrini has established himself as one of the premier players in the world in just two seasons as a teenager in the NHL and on the international stage. He also said the Sharks want a team capable of annually competing for the Stanley Cup and thanked Celebrini and his representatives for a respectful negotiation process, along with Plattner’s commitment to providing the financial resources to keep building. The extension does not say when the five years begin, but it does make clear where the Sharks are placing their bet: on Celebrini, and on the idea that the rest of the roster can grow around him.
