Elliotte Friedman’s latest 32 Thoughts Podcast episode came packed with San Jose Sharks chatter, and the biggest takeaway might be the one that lands far beyond this summer.
Macklin Celebrini is eligible for an extension now, and Friedman said he expects the Sharks to get that deal done by next Jul. 1. That timing matters, because if San Jose waits too long, Celebrini could be exposed to an offer sheet next off-season - the same kind of shockwave that hit when Leo Carlsson signed with the Philadelphia Flyers for $18 million AAV last week.
Friedman didn’t just think the Sharks would extend him. He also sketched out how that conversation could go from San Jose’s side.
“This is the way that this conversation will go with San Jose,” Friedman speculated. “They’re going to say, ‘Macklin, you deserve the max…on the ice, off the ice. You deserve it one billion percent.’”
Under the current CBA, the maximum a player can earn is 20 percent of the salary cap, which would work out to $20.8 million AAV on a $104 million cap in 2026-27 or $22.6 million AAV on a $113 million cap in 2027-28.
No player has ever carried a maximum AAV, but Celebrini has the kind of profile that makes the idea at least conceivable. He’s 20, was a Hart Trophy candidate last year, and also starred on the Olympic stage. At the same time, a contract at that level would make life harder for the Sharks when it comes to building a contender around him.
Friedman imagined the other side of that negotiation too: “‘Is there any way we can sign you without giving [the max] to you? So we can do some things around you.’”
Carlsson’s $18 million AAV already stands as the highest in NHL history, and Friedman suggested Celebrini’s next deal could reset the market again.
There was more Sharks-related material in the podcast as well. Friedman said he couldn’t confirm it, but believes San Jose was prepared to offer Bo Byram a four-year, $56 million contract if it had landed him in a trade.
He also said the Sharks preferred Darnell Nurse over Morgan Rielly when weighing the two veteran defensemen, both of whom are signed through 2030. Friedman added that other teams were interested in Nurse too.
On top of that, he thinks San Jose may still be looking for a power play quarterback.
Elsewhere in the Sharks discussion, Friedman said he was surprised by the shorter term on Jacob Trouba’s four-year deal, heard that Mason Marchment got a slightly higher AAV offer in free agency, and revisited how the Vancouver Canucks wanted Igor Chernyshov for Kiefer Sherwood last year.
In Other News...
Did Sharks Do Enough To Make This Playoff Push Real
The Sharks spent the offseason trying to turn optimism into something sturdier, reshaping the roster with a clear eye toward the 2026-27 push. Mason Marchment, Jacob Trouba, Darnell Nurse and Michael Kesselring are among the additions, while a wave of familiar names is gone, leaving San Jose with a different look and a different level of expectation than it had a year ago.
The conversation now shifts to whether that makeover is enough to make the playoff chase feel real. Players sound encouraged about the direction, but Mike Grier has kept the focus on improvement rather than a hard postseason declaration, and the biggest questions still sit in the same places they did before: the defense and the goaltending. Yaroslav Askarov is expected to keep developing into a potential starter, with Alex Nedeljkovic back on a two-year extension and Eric Comrie added for depth, but the Sharks still have to prove the new pieces can hold up when the games tighten. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Decision Just Changed The Darnell Nurse Conversation
San Joses blue-line search took a telling turn when the club settled on Darnell Nurse, a move that says plenty about what the Sharks wanted out of their next defenseman. Nurse brings the kind of physical, veteran profile that can handle top-pair minutes, while Morgan Rielly would have offered a more natural offensive fit, so the preference was less about flash and more about the type of presence the Sharks believe they need.
General manager Mike Grier has already pointed to the upside Nurse can bring, even as the defensemans previous market came with its own complications. For Rielly, the ripple effect matters too, because the list of realistic trade destinations appears to be getting smaller, which leaves his situation hanging a little longer than it might have otherwise. [Read more 🡒]