The San Jose Sharks look ready to make Macklin Celebrini the face of the franchise in a very public way. Multiple reports, including San Jose Hockey Now and insider Sheng Peng, say the captaincy decision is “all but certain,” with an official announcement expected before the regular season starts.
If that happens, Celebrini will become the 11th full-time captain in Sharks history and the first player to wear the “C” since Logan Couture stepped away from the role.
ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was the first to raise the possibility in May, and the follow-up reporting has only sharpened the expectation that San Jose is heading in this direction. The move would put the responsibility on a 20-year-old who has already forced his way into the center of the conversation.
Celebrini’s rise has been fast and loud. He put together a 115-point season in just his second year as an NHL pro, then earned a spot on Team Canada and represented well at the Olympics. The Sharks also locked him in with an $18.8 million extension this offseason.
For a team still in the middle of a rebuild, handing the captaincy to Celebrini would send a clear message about where the organization sees its future. San Jose appears ready to build around its young core, and Celebrini sits right at the heart of it.
An announcement is expected soon, and all signs point to a new chapter in leadership for the Sharks as the season gets closer.
In Other News...
Oilers May Have Just Changed Torontos Morgan Rielly Situation
Morgan Riellys future in Toronto still looks settled for now, with the Maple Leafs expecting him to be on the roster for the 2026-27 season. A trade has not been ruled out entirely, but the market around him has narrowed in a way that makes a move much harder to picture than it did not long ago.
San Jose had been one of the more logical landing spots, but its plans changed after the club shifted course on Darnell Nurse. With the Sharks no longer carrying the same cap room or roster fit for a Rielly deal, one of the more plausible paths for Toronto to explore disappeared, and other options have thinned as well. Anaheims cap space also evaporated, leaving Rielly in an awkward spot with few clear destinations if the Leafs ever decide to revisit the idea. [Read more 🡒]
Macklin Celebrini Is Climbing The Sharks History Books Faster Than Expected
Macklin Celebrinis rise has already started to reshape the Sharks record book, and it is happening quickly enough that the historical lists are no longer some distant backdrop. Among the players who have worn teal, the young center is already within striking distance of names that once seemed safely out of reach, with his scoring track placing him ahead of the kind of early-career benchmarks that usually take much longer to pile up.
The next layer is where this gets interesting for San Jose. If Celebrini keeps producing at the same rate over a full 2026-27 schedule, he would make a meaningful jump on the franchise points chart and start closing in on more familiar territory near the middle of the leaderboard. There are also assist and goal milestones coming into view, which means this is no longer just about where he sits now, but how fast the Sharks may have to keep updating the conversation around him. [Read more 🡒]