Grier: Celebrini Out With Hip Injury for At Least 2 More Weeks

Macklin Celebrini is out for at least another two weeks.

That’s according to San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier, who says the team will issue a Celebrini update in two weeks. He did confirm that it was a hip injury.

Two weeks takes Celebrini off the board for the upcoming four-game road trip, which ends Oct. 28 in Utah. Two weeks from today is Nov. 4.

So could Celebrini be ready to play by the next game after that, Nov. 5 against the Columbus Blue Jackets?

Grier didn’t rule it out, but he also did not suggest that two weeks was any kind of target date.

“We’ll have to kind of see how the rehab goes, and the evaluation goes. We’ll just give it those two weeks to see where he’s at,” he said. “Maybe he’s ready to go. Maybe he’s not. I can’t really answer how his body’s gonna respond to everything.”

Grier also confirmed that Celebrini has been dealing with this hip injury since Sept. 24, when he left training camp practice early. It’s been an on-and-off issue since then, with Celebrini missing some training camp practices, but playing an Oct. 1 exhibition against Utah Hockey Club and Oct. 10 opening night against the St. Louis Blues.

Grier conceded that Celebrini crashing into the boards against Utah on Oct. 1 didn’t help. But he stressed that Celebrini was feeling great in the lead-up to the season opener.

“You guys watched him practice for a week leading up to the game, he felt great. Obviously, if we thought there was any risk of him injuring himself or not being 100 percent?” he said. “He looked fantastic practicing. He was excited. He was ready to go. We didn’t foresee him re-injuring himself.”

But Celebrini hasn’t played or practiced since.

Celebrini is skating on his own, at least, right now.

“He’s a competitive kid. He’s dying to get back out there and help the group,” Grier said.

There’s no doubt that the 0-4-2 San Jose Sharks could use his skill and enthusiasm.

“We miss him, for sure. He’s someone who plays with pace and pushes the pace offensively and creates chances for himself and opportunities for his teammates as well,” Grier said. “So we’ve definitely missed him 5-on-5. We’ve missed him on the power play.”

But there’s definitely no hurry to bring Celebrini back.

Grier stressed that director of high performance Mike Potenza and Celebrini’s father, Golden State Warriors director of sports medicine and performance Rick Celebrini, are part of the team overseeing Macklin Celebrini’s recovery.

So Celebrini is in good hands, perhaps the best hands in the world of sports performance — San Jose Sharks fans will just have to wait to see their prized prospect again.