Celebrini expected to ‘drive our team’ this season, new Sharks coach says

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Macklin Celebrini is a month away from the start of his first NHL training camp and coach Ryan Warsofsky already views him as a potential leader for the San Jose Sharks this season.

Warsofsky, who was promoted from assistant to replace David Quinn as coach on June 13, has been impressed by Celebrini’s determination in their conversations since San Jose selected the 18-year-old forward with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

“He’s so driven,” Warsofsky said at the 2024-25 South Carolina Stingrays Fan Fest at North Charleston Coliseum on Saturday. “I think at times we’re going to have to reel him back just because he wants to go, go, go, but he’s a super competitive, self-driven young person, which you don’t see a lot this day and age. That’s what impressed me the most.

“He’s going to be a guy that won’t wear a letter (this season), but he’s going to drive our team just the way he carries himself at such a young age.”

The youngest coach in the NHL at 36 years old, Warsofsky knows something about being in a leadership position at a young age. He got his start in professional coaching in the ECHL as an assistant with South Carolina in 2013 when he was 25 and became its head coach in 2016.

In trying to establish a new culture with San Jose, which has not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs the past five seasons and finished last in the NHL last season with 47 points (19-54-9), Warsofsky views Celebrini as a key piece. It’s almost a foregone conclusion that Celebrini will make the Sharks’ opening night roster after he had 64 points (32 goals, 32 assists) in 38 games as a freshman at Boston University last season, and, at 17 years old, became the youngest player to win the Hobey Baker Award as the top NCAA men’s player.

Training camp will still be important for him, though.

“I think just him driving the way we need to play and the system we want to play with, him being a leader in that,” Warsofsky said. “I think him understanding how it’s a man’s game now and he has to protect himself at times. I watched a lot of him in college and he plays on the inside, he’s not afraid of it, but now you’re going against some bigger boys, and you’ve got to protect yourself so he can last.”

San Jose brought in a host of veteran players this offseason to surround Celebrini, fellow rookie forward Will Smith and the rest of its young players with a better supporting cast. That included signing forwards Tyler Toffoli (four-year, $24 million contract) and Alex Wennberg (two years, $10 million) and acquiring forwards Ty Dellandrea (trade with Dallas Stars/signed two years, $2.6 million) and Carl Grundstrom (trade with Los Angeles Kings/signed two years, $3.6 million contract) and Barclay Goodrow (claimed off waivers from New York Rangers) and defenseman Jake Walman (traded from Detroit Red Wings).

But Warsofksy acknowledged that Celebrini and Smith, the 19-year-old who was selected with the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, represent, “the light at the end of the tunnel” for the Sharks and their fans. He expects both to play in the 2024 Rookie Face-off, in Los Angeles from Sept. 13-16, but is unsure how many games each will play.

“Our whole team has to be more competitive in everything we do, and I preach that a lot,” Warsofsky said. “But now we’ve got inner competitiveness with those two guys. I’m sure they both want Rookie of the Year. I’m sure they both want to have more points at the end of the year, and that’s good. I want that. I think that’s super important for individual goals, but to get to that point, we’ve got to have some team success and when you have team success, individual success comes with that.

“So, I’m excited to see their competition, their inner drive to push each other.”

Warsofsky, who was an assistant with the Sharks the past two seasons, said he has spoken with every player on the roster since he was promoted and, “I talked to most of them twice now.” That included traveling to Toronto to meet with Goodrow and Walman.

Goodrow, who played his first six NHL seasons with San Jose (2014-2020), needed some time to absorb joining a rebuilding team after reaching the Eastern Conference Final with New York last season.

“We talked for a while and he’s in a good place and he’s excited,” Warsofsky said. “He’s obviously been in San Jose before, and he knows some of the guys. He and [captain Logan Couture] are really close, so that helps. I think he’s kind of turned the page on New York now. This is a business and that’s part of life. … And he’s responded great. He’s all bought in and I’m excited because he’s a big piece of our team and I think he’s excited, too.”

It was similar with Walman, who was moved after being a healthy scratch with Detroit late last season.

“After what he went through late in the year in Detroit, I thought it was important for me to go meet Jake,” Warsofsky said. “I’m a relationship-based guy. If I could go visit every single guy, I would have. So, it was just to start that relationship. What I’ve realized is generations are taught differently. Every guy is coached a little bit differently.

“We’re going to have the same philosophies and principles and non-negotiables, but what makes Jake Walman go, doesn’t make Barclay Goodrow go. So, learning that was important for me.”