Pittsburgh Penguins forward Rutger McGroarty said he's gotten into card collecting heavily the last few years, especially the Upper Deck Young Guns cards. Now, rather than players he's fans of, he's hoping to find rookie cards of his buddies, among them Gauthier, Hutson, New Jersey Devils defenseman Seamus Casey, Columbus Blue Jackets forward Gavin Brindley and Chicago Blackhawks forward Frank Nazar.
"I've played with Seamus, I've played with Cutter since I was, like, 10 years old," McGroarty said. "Same with Gavin Brindley, Frank Nazar. Kind of just seeing us all in our NHL equipment for the first time, it's a real full-circle moment.
"Hopefully one day it would be really cool if I open one up and maybe even pull a Seamus Casey one. Or I feel like it would be really cool if I pulled my own. But just pulling one of the guys and snapping them a photo of it, that'd be really cool."
Hutson grew up a Blackhawks fan, so he searched for the cards of players like Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith. But other than finding a Hutson rookie card, he's got a different target now.
"Macklin," he said. "He's a really good friend of mine, amazing player. Pretty funny guy too."
Celebrini cards should be quite the collectible. As the youngest player in NCAA hockey last season, he was third among all players with 64 points (32 goals, 32 assists) in 38 games as a freshman at Boston University and was the youngest ever to win the Hobey Baker Award as the top men's NCAA ice hockey player.
And unlike last summer, when he was recovering from shoulder surgery, Celebrini was able to get in a full offseason workout program and feels even better with training camp coming up.
"I feel like I got a little bit stronger this offseason, which I didn't have an opportunity to do the year before," he said. "I feel like just I've worked on all areas, and I feel like I've improved."
He'll get to showcase those improvements soon, starting with the 2024 Los Angeles Rookie Faceoff Tournament from Sept. 13-16 in El Segundo, California, where he'll join other Sharks rookies in playing against rookies from the Ducks, Utah Hockey Club, Seattle Kraken, Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings.
And then comes his season debut, against the St. Louis Blues at SAP Center on Oct. 10.
"This whole summer, it's been all lead-up to the season," he said. "This stuff is good. But that's the real fun and that's what we're looking forward to. It's all excitement, and we can't wait to actually get going here."
NHL.com staff writer Tom Gulitti contributed to this report