EA Sports is putting a Vancouver-born player on the cover of its hockey game for the first time, and the choice is Macklin Celebrini.
The company announced Tuesday that the North Vancouver native will be the cover athlete for NHL 27, giving the franchise its first-ever cover star from Vancouver.
Celebrini, 20, was the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks, and he wasted no time making the jump to the league. In his rookie season, he put up 25 goals and 38 assists for 63 points in 70 games. That production earned him a Calder Trophy nomination, though he finished third in the rookie-of-the-year race behind Montreal Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson and Calgary Flames goaltender Dustin Wolf.
His second season was the one that really changed the conversation. Celebrini exploded for 45 goals and 70 assists for 115 points in 82 games, setting a new Sharks franchise record for points in a single season.
Only Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, and Nathan MacKinnon finished ahead of him in league scoring. That kind of year also pushed him into the Hart Trophy picture, where he placed fourth, and made him a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award, which is voted on by his peers.
Celebrini’s impact didn’t stop at the NHL level. He was named to Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team and played on McDavid’s wing, finishing the tournament with five goals and five assists for 10 points in six games. Once the Sharks’ season was over, he suited up for Canada again at the World Championships, wore the ‘C’ on his jersey, and produced six goals and eight assists for 14 points in 10 games.
With the NHL 27 cover, Celebrini joins a short list of BC-born players to earn the honour. The only others are Andy Moog, a Penticton native who was on NHL ’94, and Steve Yzerman, from Cranbrook, who appeared on NHL 96.
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Some fans bristled at the idea of a millionaire NHL player selling extra gear, while others saw it as a perfectly reasonable deal for top-end equipment. Stankovens new eight-year, $48 million contract and his previous earnings only added fuel to the reaction, even as the post itself was the only concrete thing on the record. For now, it is just another odd little detour in the life of a player whose next chapter is still taking shape. [Read more 🡒]