Celebrini Back at Practice, When Will He Be Back in Action?

Good Macklin Celebrini news!

Celebrini rejoined San Jose Sharks’ practice on Thursday morning, a full morning skate on the eve of their match-up against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Celebrini skated before morning skate, participated fully in morning skate, and then stayed out with the extras. That’s a good sign that he’s doing well, and it appears that he’s moving without obvious restrictions.

Macklin Celebrini (in teal) staying out with the extras.

Good sign if he can get through today, pre-practice skate & full practice & post-practice with no issue. We’ll see tomorrow pic.twitter.com/OSEZccoq1r

— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) October 31, 2024

“Looks healthy to me,” Will Smith told San Jose Hockey Now with a twinkle in his eye.

Head coach Ryan Warsofsky still considers Celebrini’s return week-to-week, though he agreed that his star center looked good: “That was the next step today, and we’ll take tomorrow tomorrow.”

GM Mike Grier issued a statement: “As part of his rehabilitation plan, Macklin will return to team activities today. He has made positive progress over the past several weeks and this will be the next step toward returning to the active roster. We will continue to monitor his progress but no date has yet been set for his return to game action.”

Celebrini is eligible to return whenever the San Jose Sharks deem that he’s ready. On Oct. 21, Grier said it would be two weeks until the team would issue another update, basically ruling Celebrini out until at least the Sharks’ Nov. 5 game vs. the Columbus Blue Jackets.

We’ll see if we get another update before that. San Jose also plays the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 2.

All said, this is the first time that we’ve seen Celebrini at practice since Oct. 10, the morning skate before opening night.

Celebrini dazzled San Jose Sharks fans with one goal and one assist in his NHL debut, before the 2024 first-overall pick hit IR with a hip injury.

He hasn’t played since, though he’s been skating on his own for about a week.

Grier revealed that Macklin Celebrini has been nursing the injury since Sept. 24, when he left training camp practice early.