Grier Takes Us Behind the Scenes of Celebrini, Smith’s Development Plans

San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier took us behind the scenes of Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith’s development plans on Monday.

“There’s been a lot of thought and effort put into this from our performance group, led by Mike Potenza, the medical staff, the training [and] strength conditioning staff,” Grier said.

Potenza is the San Jose Sharks’ director of high performance.

Grier added that Macklin Celebrini’s father, Rick Celebrini, the Golden State Warriors’ director of sports medicine and performance, is involved with Celebrini’s plan, though not with Smith’s.

“[With Rick] being in the sports science world as well, he had input and is on board with everything that we’re going to do with him,” Grier said.

Potenza came back to the San Jose Sharks this past summer, after spending the last two years with Rick Celebrini in Golden State. Previously, he had been with the Sharks from 2006 to 2022.

So what exactly is the plan, which has “all been mapped out”, according to Grier? He also stressed that all parties, from team to agents to players are on board, which Will Smith confirmed on Sunday.

While Grier didn’t want to, for competitive reasons, share which games that Celebrini and Smith will or won’t be playing — Smith already sat out the Oct. 18 contest at the Winnipeg Jets, while Macklin Celebrini is currently out with a hip injury — he did share some of the reasoning behind the development plans, what the players will be doing on the days that they’re not playing, and the immediate goals for Celebrini and Smith, this season and next.

Grier noted that the teenagers are coming from the NCAA, where teams play about 40 games, a far less grueling schedule than the NHL 82-game grind.

“The injury rate is high for teenagers. I didn’t, we didn’t really get into what specific types of injuries, but it’s definitely a lot higher for teenagers,” Grier said.

So the 2024 first-overall and 2023 fourth-overall picks are scheduled to play a limited number of games, at least in the first half of the season.

Grier was clear to stress though, just because the kids aren’t playing, it’s not a day off, by any means.

“A big part of it is going to be gym work for both of them. They both have things through our testing that we did in development camp and training camp. Both guys, testing-wise, they need to get better at, whether it’s getting stronger, quicker, faster, more explosive, or whatever it may be. They all have targets and things we want to improve on,” Grier said. “That goes hand in hand with maybe not playing a game, right? You can put more time into the gym and work on your body that way.”

In addition to more time in the gym, the top San Jose Sharks prospects will be doing skills development on their “off-days”.

“Their off-day practices are going to be targeted skill development days, not just your usual post-morning skate bag skate when you’re not playing,” Grier said. “It’s going to be targeted, specific work that the coaches feel they need to work on, and the players themselves feel that they need to get better in.”

So what are the immediate goals of this first-half development plan?

It’ll help the teen phenoms get acclimated to the NHL, and serve, hopefully, as a springboard for bigger and better things.

“Once we get into the second half, they got to experience a little bit what the league is like. Take your lumps, get into those scenarios where you’ve got four-game weeks and things like that, and just get used to that,” Grier said.

By the way, that also means that there hasn’t been much or any consideration for Will Smith to play in the AHL: “The plan for him is to be up here, learn up here, play up here. We knew there was going to be ups and downs and bumps. I don’t envision it getting to the point where we feel like he needs to go to the American League and play. I think he’ll be fine up here.”

Grier said the hope is that Celebrini and Smith can take on a full second-half NHL schedule. Then?

Hopefully, the San Jose Sharks can unleash their dynamic duo without restrictions during the 2025-26 season.