Celebrini, Smith 'two peas in a pod' with Sharks

NEW YORK -- Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith are exactly how you'd think they would be.

"It blended right away," Smith said.

The San Jose Sharks rookie forwards chirp each other about the Boston University-Boston College rivalry since they each played in it last season, Celebrini with BU and Smith with BC.

Smith said to expect a World Juniors debate about who is better, Canada or the United States. They each played in that tournament last season too, Smith winning it with the U.S. and Celebrini falling short of a medal with Canada.

They eat together on the road, with Smith scouring TikTok for the best spots in each city. They hang out together when the Sharks are home. Celebrini lives with Sharks legend Joe Thornton and his family, so Smith will go there for dinner and play 2-on-2 basketball with 'Jumbo' and his son, River.

"Oh, they're awesome, but they sit behind me on the plane and it's nonstop," Sharks forward Tyler Toffoli said. "Will is just staying stupid things and Macklin is getting him going and I'm telling them to shut up, basically. But, no, seriously, they're great guys."

Celebrini, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, and Smith, the No. 4 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, are beginning their NHL journeys together, living out the dream as teenagers in the world's best league while reality regularly humbles them.

"It's been a dream of mine to play in the NHL ever since I was a kid, so to be doing it is really cool," Celebrini, 18, said. "Some of the stuff behind the scenes, you don't understand how hard it is and what players go through until you actually do it. I mean, I talked to a bunch of those guys in the summer in preparation for this year, but you don't really get to understand it and get the real feel for it unless you actually experience it yourself."

Learning how to excel in the NHL is challenging, particularly when expectations are high.

"Night in and night out you're playing against some really good hockey players and really good hockey teams so you can never have a night off or an easy night," Celebrini said. "When you're doing that for 82 games it can add up. I'm only a month in, only [eight] games in really, and you can tell the toll it takes. But it's all a learning process."

It is at least made things easier for Celebrini and Smith because they have each other.

"Coming from college, you've got older guys on the team now who have kids instead of older guys just being a senior in college," Smith, 19, said. "It's different, so to have someone the same age is helpful. We're always together off the ice."

Forward Alex Wennberg called them, "two peas in a pod."

"They're on the same journey, but they're totally different players," Wennberg said.

Celebrini is the explosive one, using his speed to attack, his high motor always going, setting the pace instead of trying to keep it.

That skill was on display Monday when he scored in overtime to give the Sharks a 5-4 home win against the Detroit Red Wings. He took a pass at the blue line, skated around two Detroit defenders, pulled the puck back and beat goalie Cam Talbot over the glove with a wrist shot. It was his first game-winning goal and gave him five points (four goals, one assist) in eight games, having missed 12 in a row with a lower-body injury after playing, and scoring, in the Sharks' season opener.

Smith is the patient one who likes to slow the game down, play with the puck, methodical and, when he can be, surgical. He has four points (two goals, two assists) in 16 games. He's been an occasional healthy scratch as part of a development plan the Sharks have him on.

"You can see why they were such high picks; the skill they have, the drive they have to get better," Sharks forward Barclay Goodrow said. "It's been cool through this first part to see them get more comfortable. You can see the trajectory these guys are going to be on."

You can also see how much they have to learn, each game they play providing another example.

"There's a lot of adjustment, different plays you can make and can't make," Celebrini said. "Finding the balance between holding onto the puck and not turning over the puck, because you can give some very good players opportunities through that."

In San Jose's 4-3 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Nov. 11, it was Smith's turnover in the offensive zone that led directly to Matvei Michkov's breakaway goal that put Philadelphia up 3-0 in the second period.

In San Jose's 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday, it was Celebrini's turnover in the offensive zone that led to a rush chance against. He got back to defend, but overskated the puck in the slot and a half-second later Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey scored from between the hash marks.

"It's a lot more teaching and understanding," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "We show clips where it's 5-on-5 in a 'D' zone face-off, and the next thing you know it's a 4-on-3, the next thing you know it's a 3-on-2 and then 2-on-1 in a split second. Each of them are in different plans with the things they need to work on, but for me it's the play away from the puck.

“Hopefully, 10 years from now when these guys have long careers, they can look back and say they learned this year and in the following years how to play without the puck so we're not trying to teach that in Year 5. We've got to get ahead of it."

The learning process Celebrini and Smith are going through has been the same for every teen who came into the NHL before them. It will be the same for those who follow them.

Seventeen years ago, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane went through it all together too, teenagers on a Chicago Blackhawks team that was rebuilding around them. There were hard lessons and turnovers and losses, but they were always together, linked, the future.

Three years later, they were Stanley Cup champions.

That's the dream Celebrini and Smith want to live out in San Jose. They're taking their first steps toward it, being themselves and enjoying this new sweet and challenging NHL life as they do it together.

And the Sharks (6-10-4) are improving as well. They started the season 0-7-2, but with the win Monday, have gone 6-3-2 in their last 11 games with Celebrini and Smith a big reason why.

"You see the potential," Wennberg said. "You see that these guys can be as good as anyone."