Celebrini Playing Elite Hockey in Many Areas, Some Surprising

Macklin Celebrini is about more than scoring goals.

He can do that too, of course.

Macklin Celebrini scored a plenty impressive goal on Monday against the Detroit Red Wings, the first overtime marker of his career.

But the San Jose Sharks’ 2024 No. 1 pick is also playing elite hockey in other areas. Reminder: It’s just eight games into his career, so it’s a small sample size.

Mike Kelly of SPORTLOGiQ, also an NHL Network analyst, broke it down.

All micro-stats are All Situations, as of Nov. 18.

Puck Battles

In a host of impressive stats, this might be the most impressive.

18-year-old Celebrini is leading the league in Puck Battles Won per game.

Put it another way: A teenager is winning puck battles with regularity against the best, strongest hockey players in the world.

San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky isn’t surprised.

“You can tell just by his motor and his competitiveness. That doesn’t surprise me that he’s top in the league in that category,” he said. “You don’t need the statistics to tell you that. You just watch the eye test.”

Warsofsky isn’t letting Celebrini rest on his laurels either: “There’s obviously times he could even do it more often.”

Off Puck Play: Maybe most impressive, how good he is without the puck this early. Anticipates well, heavy and always battling to get pucks back.

Stat: Per-Game, 1st among forwards in puck battle wins, 20th in loose puck recoveries, 26th in blocked passes. pic.twitter.com/f6cEnsimn7

— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) November 19, 2024

Gaining the Zone

Giving Macklin Celebrini the puck is pretty much an automatic zone entry, especially on the power play, as San Jose Hockey Now observed last week.

And now, we have the stats to back it up.

Kelly says that Celebrini is first among NHL forwards in Zone Entries per game. He’s ahead of…wait for it…Hart Trophy winners Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.

“He has some deception to his game. He’s got some speed to push teams back,” Warsofsky said.

Maybe more than some!

Creating Offense – Puck Moving: Great understanding of how to get to the middle on entries. Something he worked on a lot at BU last season.

Stat: Per Game, 1st amongst forwards in controlled entries (9.1). MacKinnon 2nd, McDavid 3rd.
Will get better at making the most of them… pic.twitter.com/mrINUso3dq

— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) November 19, 2024

Dekes

Part and parcel with Celebrini’s ability to gain the zone almost at will, his stickhandling talent appears to have already translated to the highest level.

He’s fifth among forwards in open-ice dekes, beating defenders one-on-one, behind stars like McDavid, Troy Terry, Jack Eichel, and Kirill Kaprizov.

He’s also able to stickhandle in-tight, not just blueline from blueline.

Kelly put it best, noting that Celebrini is “already showing an elite ability at getting off the wall and into the middle of the ice when receiving the puck in the offensive zone.”

Explosiveness: Already showing an elite ability at getting off the wall and into the middle of the ice when receiving the puck in the offensive zone. Elusive and protects the puck well.

Stat: Per Game, 5th amongst forwards in open-ice dekes (beating defenders 1v1). Top 4 are… pic.twitter.com/FHJMTwJMMT

— Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyNHL) November 19, 2024

Again, remember that it’s an 18-year-old doing all this. Celebrini is only going to become a more complete player for the San Jose Sharks. The pieces, clearly, are all there.

“We know he has a bright future,” Warsofsky said, “him and Will [Smith], in this league of creating offense, playing the right way, and helping our organization win hockey games in the future.”