San Jose Sharks
SOURCE: Smith To Be Part of Team USA’s World Championships Roster
Will Smith will be joining Macklin Celebrini at the World Championships.
That’s what San Jose Hockey Now is hearing from a source.
Last week, Macklin Celebrini confirmed that he would be a part of Team Canada’s World Championships roster.
Smith couldn’t confirm his inclusion on Team USA at the time, but it’s been expected that he would be a part of the roster. His San Jose Sharks head coach Ryan Warsofsky is behind the helm for the red, white, and blue.
This year’s World Championships will be held in Sweden and Denmark, beginning on May 9.
The Sharks’ rookies have revitalized the franchise with their on-the-ice skill and off-the-ice hijinks.
Celebrini is a Calder Trophy front-runner with 25 goals and 63 points, and Smith isn’t far behind with 18 goals and 45 points. From Jan. 20 to the end of the regular season, they’re No. 1-2 in rookie points, Celebrini with 31 and Smith with 30.
They’ve also become best friends, perhaps of some surprise to them, since they were rivals growing up, be it in the USHL two years ago when Celebrini was with the Chicago Steel and the San Jose Sharks 2023 No. 4 pick was with the USNTDP or in the NCAA last year when the 2024 No. 1 pick was with Boston University and Smith was with Boston College.
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“Probably not this much, to be honest,” Will Smith said last week, when asked if knew how well that he would get along with Celebrini. “Everyone knows that we were rivals before that and we didn’t say a word to each other before that.”
Anything they do goes viral in Sharks nation, and that should continue even in Europe, when they face off against each other, in the first of hopefully many international battles between the dynamic duo as pros.
“I think their bond is going to carry this group,” San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier said.
But for now, they’re rivals once again.
