Celebrini shades of Thornton, proving future is now for Sharks

Legendary reporter Stan Fischler writes a weekly feature for NHL.com. Fischler, also known as "The Hockey Maven," brings his humor and insight to readers every Wednesday. The latest "Then and Now" features two heroes in San Jose Sharks history, Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Thornton and second-year forward Macklin Celebrini.

A year ago, Macklin Celebrini celebrated his rookie season for the San Jose Sharks with 63 points (25 goals, 38 assists) and was a finalist for the Calder Trophy given to the NHL rookie of the year, won by Montreal Canadiens defenseman Lane Hutson.

"Unfortunately," the native of North Vancouver, British Columbia, recalled, "we didn't make the playoffs."

Yet a star was born. The No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft led the Sharks in scoring and showed promise of bigger and better things in 2025-26. Heading into the homestretch of this season, the 19-year-old has delivered, big time, and will represent Team Canada at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

He may even galvanize San Jose to its first Stanley Cup Playoff berth since 2019, when it lost the Western Conference Final in six games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues.

"He's the most impressive young player that I've seen in years in maturity of the game," Florida Panthers two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Paul Maurice said. "Usually, these guys come in, and they have a gift that just nobody else has, they're just much faster or much more skilled or more offensively gifted than other players. But you don't really see young players come in with an exceptionally well-rounded game marked by the plays they don't make."

Celebrini's high-octane offense has spurred the Sharks into a potential playoff team. The peach-faced forward, who turns 20 on June 13, effortlessly has ignored the dreaded "sophomore slump" while averaging more than a point a game (81 points; 28 goals, 53 assists in 54 games). He leads the Sharks (27-23-4) into a litmus test against the Colorado Avalanche, owners of the best record in the NHL (36-9-9), at Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday (9 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, ALT), their last game before he travels to Milano for the Olympics.

A portent of things to come became available when Celebrini completed a hat trick by scoring a power-play goal at 2:52 of overtime for a 3-2 home win against the Utah Mammoth on Nov. 18. He then tied Sidney Crosby (55 in 2006-07) for the most points by a teenager entering the holiday break during a 7-2 loss at the Vegas Golden Knights on Dec. 23.

"He's really good," Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. "He works really hard. I like that about him. His work ethic and passion for the game, you can see it. He's playing really well."

The kid's arresting efforts bring to mind an earlier Sharks scoring hero, Joe Thornton, nicknamed "Jumbo" because of his 6-foot-4, 219 fuselage and the fact that famed circus star Jumbo the Elephant died in St. Thomas, Ontario, where Thornton was raised.

Unlike Celebrini's cyclonic start, Thornton's rookie season (1997-98) was a downer, but gradually -- without much fuss or fanfare -- he became an idol.

"Joe was a terrific player and a very good teammate," Mike O'Connell, a retired NHL defenseman who later became Boston Bruins general manager, told ESPN.com on Dec. 9, 2015. "When you really come down to it, being a good teammate is probably the nicest thing you can say about someone."

O'Connell was Bruins GM when Thornton was traded to the Sharks for Brad Stuart, Marco Sturm and Wayne Primeau on Nov. 30, 2005. When Thornton won the 2006 Hart Trophy voted as the NHL Most Valuable Player, he became the only player to have won the prize after playing for two different teams in the same season.

"I don't think there's a player who ever loved the game more than Joe," former Sharks general manager Doug Wilson told ESPN.com. "He just loved being at the rink, and what a difference he made for the Sharks franchise."

It was from 2005 through 2019 that Thornton's body of work with the Sharks earned him a Hall of Fame nomination June 24, 2025. With Thornton still going strong in 2016, the Sharks advanced to the Stanley Cup Final, a six-game loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Today, Thornton is San Jose's player development coach and immediately took Celebrini under his wing as his boarder.

"Living with him, I think it’s the perfect situation for me coming into this year, because he pretty much dealt with the same thing a little while back," Celebrini said during the NHL North American Media Tour in September of 2024. "Just to learn from his advice, his lessons and his wisdom is super important for me."

Thornton's best seasons were with Patrick Marleau as a teammate. Celebrini's wing is Will Smith, selected by San Jose with the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft. The Thornton-Celebrini scenarios often match when one X-rays their respective careers. Only the eras differ, but the Sharks' mantra remains the same then and now.

"The Future is Teal."

For Celebrini it also happens to be now.

NHL.com senior writer Amalie Benjamin, columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika and independent correspondent Max Miller contributed to this report