The San Jose Sharks won the NHL Draft Lottery last week, getting the right to select Macklin Celebrini with the first-overall pick.
While the team will need to wait a little while to make it official, as the standout player in the 2024 draft class, Celebrini is an easy choice for the Sharks with the top pick. The forward is coming off a year where he managed 32 goals and 64 points in 38 games with Boston University, at just 17 years old.
For reference in terms of how unbelievable Celebrini’s goal totals were: Jack Eichel scored 26 goals in 40 games with Boston University the year he was drafted, and did so with a full extra year of development given his late birthday, playing the season at 18 years old. Averaged out to an 82-game pace, Celebrini’s BU totals would’ve had him on pace for 69 goals, while Eichel’s would’ve been 53.
But with the Sharks firmly in the midst of a rebuild, what does adding Celebrini mean for San Jose?
A (possibly) fast-tracked timeline to compete
With Celebrini, the Sharks have a long-term, top-line center to guide them to a better future. But short-term, they now also have a forward who can step right into their lineup next season.
While Celebrini certainly can’t be expected to carry the full load for the team, and the Sharks still aren’t getting anywhere near the postseason next year, it does fast-track their timeline to a more competitive era. Other early first-round picks will often need a year or more to develop before making the jump to the NHL, seen with the likes of Will Smith and William Eklund. While handling the development of these players correctly is obviously at the forefront of any decisions, it also means less short-term success.
With Celebrini very likely to make the jump to the NHL right away though, the Sharks get a piece added to their top-six next season. Then aside from just the impact of Celebrini himself, we can expect the team could be aided by some other additions as well…
Increased emphasis on offseason additions
This past season, the Sharks iced a pretty makeshift roster, with an emphasis on just getting younger players into the lineup and building for the future. With Celebrini likely to be in the lineup next season though, there’s going to be an urge to surround him with some talent.
Transitioning Celebrini to the NHL correctly is as important as any step in the team’s rebuild. As a result, you want players on his line, or at least within the forward group, who can help to shelter him a bit.
We saw an example of this last offseason with Connor Bedard going to Chicago. The Blackhawks acquired Taylor Hall, then overpaid to sign Nick Foligno and Corey Perry, adding a bit more of a veteran presence up forward group. While Hall ended up missing most of the year, and Perry’s contract was terminated, the logic behind the additions was sound.
San Jose probably isn't going to opt to play Celebrini with two inexperienced wingers right off the bat, and with limited veterans who can really play up the lineup, there’s a bit of an incentive to look for an external addition or two. Whereas this may not have been as much of a priority if the Sharks were drafting a player who was still a ways out from making the jump to the NHL, the team will likely to want to surround Celebrini with a bit of skill, to help his transition.
This doesn't have to be legitimate top-tier talent, but we can probably expect the Sharks to add a winger or two with a bit of NHL experience over the offseason.
A long-term core of the forward group could be starting to take shape
Looking to their group of prospects (and developing roster players), you could argue the Sharks will already have three players to build around, who could hopefully be long-term members of their top-six group: Celebrini, Smith, and Eklund.
But while adding some talent in the offseason is a likely route forward for the team, there's also something to be said about not blocking their young talent, by adding players above them on the depth chart. While this shouldn’t be an issue on the wing, you can already see a bit of a logjam coming up at center. With Celebrini, Smith (if he makes the jump to the NHL), Thomas Bordeleau, and Logan Couture (if healthy), the team is already looking at more possible top-six/nine centers than spots available down the middle for the coming years.
The Sharks have started to put a solid prospect pool in place as well. Quentin Musty, Danil Gushchin, Filip Bystedt, David Edstrom and others could all start to join the Sharks in the near future, while the likes of Fabian Zetterlund and Collin Graf could take a step with the Sharks next season.
This year was pretty clearly rock bottom for the Sharks. But while Celebrini may not change San Jose's long-term plans of building into a sustainable contender (though he obviously makes that more of a reality) his addition, and any subsequent offseason additions to build around him, are likely to leave the Sharks in a more competitive spot than anticipated within the next couple of years.
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