The San Jose Sharks introduced Thursday that Macklin Celebrini will function the franchise’s eleventh full-time captain, making the 20-year-old ahead the youngest lively captain within the NHL.
Celebrini, chosen first general by San Jose within the 2024 NHL Draft, inherits the captaincy from Logan Couture, who held the function from 2019 to 2025. He turns into the newest in a line of franchise cornerstones to put on the C, and by virtually any measure, he arrived at this second quicker than any participant in current reminiscence.
In his second NHL season in 2025-26, Celebrini posted 115 factors — fourth within the league — on 45 targets and 70 assists. His 45 targets have been tied for fourth within the NHL; his 70 assists ranked seventh. According to the Sharks, he’s solely the second participant below 20 in NHL historical past to report 40 or extra targets and 70 or extra assists in a single season, becoming a member of Wayne Gretzky. His level complete is the third-best ever by an adolescent within the NHL, and he holds the franchise’s single-season scoring report.
Celebrini, a local of North Vancouver, British Columbia, backed up his regular-season efficiency on the worldwide stage. He led all scorers in targets for Team Canada on the 2026 Winter Olympics, the place Canada received the silver medal, and was named captain of the Canadian squad on the World Championship. He additionally earned the IIHF Male Player of the Year award for 2025-26 and was a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Trophy, offered yearly by NHL gamers to the league’s most excellent participant.
The captaincy announcement comes because the Sharks put together for what the group hopes will probably be a sustained contending window constructed round Celebrini. San Jose completed close to the underside of the Western Conference in every of the three seasons earlier than drafting him first general, and his emergence as one of many sport’s prime gamers — at age 20 — has repositioned the franchise extra rapidly than most rebuilding timelines permit.
Couture’s tenure spanned six seasons and included a number of the franchise’s most turbulent years. Celebrini steps into the function at a distinct second: with the workforce’s greatest participant already recognized and already acting at an elite stage, the captain’s function right here is much less about steadying a roster in flux and extra about setting an ordinary from the entrance.
The Sharks open the 2026-27 season with Celebrini as their chief on ice, holder of the franchise scoring report, and the youngest captain at present sporting a C within the NHL.
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