Status Under contract (extension window opens 2027)
The card
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+25.6
Pine Net Rating v0.1: goals above replacement per 82 games (+25.6 over his 82). 97% among 469 forwards, 1st line.
- Position
- C
- Number
- #71
- Shoots
- L
- Age
- 20
- Size
- 6'0", 190 lb
- Ice time
- 21:19 a game
- Games
- 82
- Pieces here
- 66
2025-26 regular season: 82 games, 1748 minutes.
2026-27: +19.1 (range +5.5 to +32.6). 2030-31: +21.7 (range -8.1 to +51.6).
- Market value
- $11.25M
- Cap hit
- $975K
- Surplus
- +$10.275M
- Positive value
- over 99%
Market value is what the league pays a forward at his rating percentile this season, from 386 contracts; in 2026-27 dollars against a $104M ceiling. Positive value is the share of 2,000 simulated futures over his 1 remaining year in which that value meets his cap hit.
The number on each bar is his percentile among league forwards with 200 or more minutes at 5-on-5 (special teams: 30 or more minutes on the unit); each block prints the size of that group. Higher is better on every bar; chances against are inverted so 90% always reads well.
Sources: NHL.com for the roster, bio and counting line; MoneyPuck for expected goals, on-ice chances, blocks and penalties; PuckPedia and CapWages for the contract. Updated 2026-09-13. The rating, the forecast and the value line are this site's own, from public data, with the method published.
On the record
Called Shots →Macklin Celebrini's $18.8 million average annual value is NOT the highest in the NHL on July 29, 2027. Scored off any active standard player contract carrying a higher AAV on that date, signed by any player on any club, and counting a signed extension that has not yet taken effect. A hit means at least one such contract exists; a miss means $18.8 million still stands alone at the top.
San Jose signs Will Smith to a new contract of five years or fewer on or before July 1, 2027.
Macklin Celebrini finishes the 2026-27 regular season with at least 70 even-strength points for San Jose, after 82 in 2025-26.
San Jose's power play finishes the 2026-27 regular season converting 23.00 percent or better, after 21.18 percent in 2025-26.
Kiefer Sherwood averages under 1:45 a night on the power play across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27.
Alexander Wennberg finishes the 2026-27 regular season with more power-play points than Michael Misa.
Igor Chernyshov averages more than 2.00 shots on goal per game across San Jose's first 20 regular-season games of 2026-27.
San Jose's penalty kill finishes the 2026-27 regular season ranked higher among the 32 NHL clubs than San Jose's power play.
Sam Dickinson averages more time on ice per game than Darnell Nurse across San Jose's first 20 games of 2026-27.
Macklin Celebrini finishes the 2026-27 regular season with a faceoff win percentage of 50.0 or better for San Jose, after 48.6 percent (625 of 1,285) in 2025-26 and 48.2 percent (507 of 1,051) in 2024-25.
Will Smith and San Jose do not agree to a contract extension on or before April 30, 2027.
Written about him
Celebrini scored 45 goals on 31.8 expected, and San Jose is betting on the gap
Macklin Celebrini scored 45 goals on 31.8 expected goals last season, a gap of 13.2 that ranked fourth among the 411 NHL forwards who played 40 games or more. With him on the ice at five-on-five the Sharks were level on expected goals; without him they were at 46 percent. He plays this season on the last year of a $975,000 entry-level deal before an $18,800,000 cap hit begins. Training camp opens today.
Collin Graf Scored More Shorthanded Than He Did On The Power Play
Collin Graf spent 39 minutes and 38 seconds on the power play across 81 games last season, tenth among San Jose forwards, and 200 minutes killing penalties, which was first. He scored 21 goals anyway and finished with 42 even-strength points, tied with Will Smith for second on the team behind Macklin Celebrini. San Jose then signed him for three years and $12,750,000. The open house row on him says he reaches 50 points, and the entire case for that is usage the club has never given him.
Of Alexander Wennberg's Twenty And A Half Minutes A Night, Five And A Half Came On Special Teams
Alexander Wennberg scored 55 points in 80 games last season and averaged 20:27 a night. Three minutes twenty of that was power play, second on the whole roster behind Macklin Celebrini, and two minutes eight was penalty kill. The demotion every projection has him taking is an even-strength demotion, and both published power-play projections keep him on the first unit. The number that threatens the 55 is a 19.4 percent shooting rate against a career mark of 11.4 across 869 games.
Macklin Celebrini Explained His Own Contract By Talking About Everybody Else's
Macklin Celebrini's first media availability since his five-year, $94 million extension. He explained the number, the timing and the term, and all three explanations were about San Jose's flexibility rather than his own market. The context underneath them is a June meeting his agent Pat Brisson requested with owner Hasso Plattner and general manager Mike Grier, reported in July, about the direction of the franchise.
If Quentin Musty Makes The Sharks Out Of Camp, It Will Be For A Skill He Has Not Shown
Quentin Musty shot 168 times in 61 American Hockey League games last season and scored 21 goals, a 12.5 percent conversion rate on the highest volume in the organization. He is the highest-ceiling forward outside San Jose's opening 23 and the one most likely to be told to wait. The camp spot everybody imagines him winning is the wrong door, because the door that opens in September leads to a checking job and the recall in December leads to the one he can actually do.
What Is Left Of Celebrini's 115 Points After The Power Play Comes Off
Macklin Celebrini scored 82 of his 115 points at even strength last season. Connor McDavid scored 82 of his 138 there. Same number, same 82 games. The difference between 115 points and 138 is a power play that converted 30.63 percent in Edmonton and 21.18 percent in San Jose, and a ranking built on point totals is measuring two power plays at least as much as it is measuring two players.
Only Macklin Celebrini Scored Faster Than Adam Gaudette Last Season
Adam Gaudette scored 17 goals in 66 games last season on 11:28 a night, a rate of 1.35 goals per sixty minutes that only Macklin Celebrini beat among the forwards San Jose returns. He is also the thirteenth forward in most published projections of the 2026-27 lineup, he must clear waivers to be sent anywhere, and he is in the final year of a two-year deal at $2,000,000. The season's question is not whether he can finish. It is whether a deeper team gives him anything to finish.
San Jose Has Four Preseason Games And Nineteen Men Who Can Play Two Of Them
San Jose's 2026-27 preseason is four games, down from six in each of the last three years, because the new collective bargaining agreement caps it there. The same agreement limits any player with 100 or more NHL games to two exhibition appearances. Nineteen of the 41 players on the club's listed roster clear that bar, including Macklin Celebrini at 152 games and Will Smith at 143. From the first rookie game on September 12 to the opener on October 1 is nineteen days and six games.
Everybody Signed The Same Lease. The Rent Ran From $7.2 Million To $18.8 Million.
Clarke, Demidov, Carlsson, Mintyukov, Nemec, Bedard and Celebrini all signed between June 26 and July 29. Six of the seven landed on five years, three defensemen negotiated by three separate front offices landed within $200,000 of each other, and the term on the summer's biggest restricted free agent contract was written by a team that never employed him. What that leaves San Jose is a date in 2032 it did not pick.
The $10 Million Macklin Celebrini Left On The Table All Comes Out Of 2031 And 2032
Celebrini's extension is five years and $94 million, an $18.8 million cap hit that is the highest in league history. A max deal would have paid $104 million. Every dollar of the difference is deferred to the last two seasons, the first three pay the maximum an NHL contract is allowed to pay, and $89.1 million of the total is signing bonus.
How high does Macklin Celebrini go? Higher than we've been saying.
How high does Macklin Celebrini go? Higher than we've been saying.
Will Smith, away from Celebrini: the one stat that decides the Star Forward slot
Will Smith and the driver-or-passenger question
Pricing the Celebrini extension: the number, the deadline nobody is talking about, and what every dollar costs the core
Pricing the Celebrini extension
Collin Graf, 2025-26: The Qualifying Offer Was the Easiest Decision of the Summer
An undrafted right wing from Lincoln, Mass., posted the highest 5v5 expected goals per 60 on a Sharks roster that included Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund, and Tyler
