Celebrini Is Ted Lindsay Award Finalist

This is the first of many honors that Macklin Celebrini is likely to receive this off-season. And in some ways, this could be the highest honor.

The NHLPA announced on Tuesday that Celebrini was one of the three finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, with Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers and Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Ted Lindsay Award, formerly known as the Lester B. Pearson Award, is voted by the NHLPA, for the most outstanding player in the NHL. This is the only league award voted by the players themselves, which says something about the kind of season that the San Jose Sharks superstar enjoyed.

Celebrini scored 45 goals and 115 points, breaking Joe Thornton’s single-season franchise record for points (114 in 2006-07). Celebrini also dragged the San Jose Sharks into playoff contention, spearheading a 34-point improvement for team, from 52 to 86.

Celebrini was involved with 46.2 of San Jose’s 249 goals, the second-highest individual player percentage, after McDavid’s 48.9. Celebrini had 56 points more than No. 2 of the Sharks, Will Smith’s 59, the largest difference between No. 1 and No. 2 scorer on the team in the league.

And he did all this at 19. Celebrini is the first teenager to be a Pearson or Lindsay finalist since a 19-year-old Sidney Crosby was a Pearson finalist in 2007. Crosby was also the last teenager to win the award.

The Ted Lindsay Award winner will be announced later this summer.