With Macklin Celebrini as their engine, Sharks are making a surprising playoff push
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Eric Stephens
After six years and a brutal but necessary and rewarding bottoming out, San Jose is using the P-word and can do so with true conviction.
ANAHEIM, Calif. — There once was a time when players and coaches insisted they didn’t look at the standings and that all the focus was on the games. Control what you could control, right? Anything else is a distraction.
But that’s not entirely true, as players and coaches do look at the standings — especially in the spring when they might be in a playoff race.
That’s where the San Jose Sharks could be, perhaps amazingly so, if they can stay above the cutoff line and maybe even mix in a winning streak in the weeks leading up to the Olympic break and a potentially decisive month afterward.
Following Monday night’s 5-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks, the Sharks have the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. They’ve been in and out of that position, but mostly in that place over recent weeks. They’re like many other flawed teams in the West — particularly in the so-so Pacific Division — a losing streak away from plummeting out of contention but close enough to where one winning stretch to go with break-even play could be enough to have them jumping into the postseason fountain.
After six years and a brutal but necessary and rewarding bottoming out, the Sharks are using the P-word and can do so with some true conviction.
“It’s obviously very exciting,” Mario Ferraro said. “It’s been a while since this organization has been in that position. We’re excited in this room. We see the potential. We’ve had some very good nights, some very good performances, where we see if we play this way consistently, we can make a playoff spot.
“But we’ve also seen the other side of it, too. As much as we’re very excited about where we’re at as a team, we know that there’s work to be done and we’re not taking that for granted. It’s a good feeling for sure, but we know we have some work to do, and we’re motivated to continue on pushing and hopefully it’ll solidify a playoff spot.”
The Sharks didn’t look like a classic playoff team Monday. Anaheim dominated the run of play in all three periods and poured 84 shot attempts at San Jose, 42 of which got to goalie Yaroslav Askarov. But they made their measly 13 shots on goal count, chasing Ducks netminder Lukáš Dostál by capitalizing on slumping Anaheim’s mistakes and riding a stellar 38-save night by the potential star-in-the-making, Askarov.
By no surprise, 19-year-old Macklin Celebrini had a direct hand in forcing those Ducks errors. He beat Anaheim defenseman Jacob Trouba to open space and bury his 21st goal, backchecked to jump on a Sam Dickinson-created turnover to feed Igor Chernyshov down low and then stole the puck away from Ducks defenseman Drew Helleson to give William Eklund the tastiest of dishes to finish.
That was Celebrini’s 10th three-point game this season and it left him with 60 points, trailing only Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon in the NHL scoring race. Team Canada is announcing its Olympic roster on Wednesday, and it feels incomprehensible that the stupendous sophomore wouldn’t be on it.
“In my mind, no,” Sharks center Zack Ostapchuk said, pondering the question of Celebrini somehow being left off. “Especially his last couple of games, if there was ever any doubt. I think this last couple games, he’s just solidified himself. I think he’s one of the best players in the world.”
Said Eklund, an Olympic hopeful for Sweden: “He has to be on that team. It would be weird otherwise.”
Celebrini left Honda Center with a battle scar as he took a deflected puck off the left side of his face in the third period. Any serious damage was mitigated by his visor, but some puffiness under his left eye remained; he returned and finished the game. Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky noted the shot block he made as they fended off a Ducks comeback and final push.
The teenage superstar didn’t talk about his game afterward, but his actions on the ice spoke volumes, as many teal-clad fans wearing No. 71 in the audience rejoiced and the hockey world has come to see.
“It doesn’t even surprise me anymore,” Ostapchuk said. “Every game, it’s something new with that guy. He’s a very, very special player. Works his tail off out there. He’s just special.”
As much as it could be all-Macklin, all the time with someone who has changed a franchise — “I’m going to say he’s a special, special player, and I don’t give too many people that two specials,” Ducks coach Joel Quenneville said — it hasn’t been a one-man show that’s pushed the Sharks into playoff contention even if the young Hart Trophy candidate is their powerful engine.
They’ve gotten a big boost from Chernyshov, one of their best prospects in a deep pool. At 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, the 20-year-old Russian left wing showed his tremendous hands with a skilled backhand finish. He fell to the first pick of the draft’s second round in 2024 and he’s been a quick study, going from nearly a point per game in his AHL indoctrination to two goals and six points in his first six NHL games.
More importantly, Chernyshov could be the power forward the Sharks were seeking to pair with Celebrini.
“He’s big, he can hold onto pucks,” Warsofsky said. “Obviously when Mack is playing, he’s got to get a lot of the pucks. Nothing against Eky (Eklund) and Smitty (Will Smith) and the guys that have played with him, but the body frame that he has, he can go in there, and he can win pucks, and he can go hold onto it. He can protect it, like he does in that last goal (in Vancouver) the other night. That ability, that makeup. really set him apart.”
The Sharks remain in transition when it comes to their roster, but in a way that’s been productive and enjoyable. Warsofsky pointed to how 38-year-old ruffian Ryan Reaves has brought their room together with his lively personality and the gritty Barclay Goodrow to go with veterans Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Wennberg, have helped form a leadership collective he loves. How Celebrini — who should be their next captain — now fits into that.
The latest example is when they survived Anaheim’s fierce third-period rally. As recently as last season, the Sharks would have blown that game.
“We kind of got on our heels,” Warsofsky said. “In the first time in my four years (in San Jose), where the chatter in the locker room was very impressive as far as how we need to play going forward. Did we do that perfectly? No. But we are making strides to understand how we need to play in certain times, and that’s a big positive.”
It is becoming a tight locker room. And their refusal to withdraw from the playoff picture presents an interesting dynamic for Sharks general manager Mike Grier. With 15 oncoming free agents, including eight UFAs, who play critical roles, is it worth doing another sell-off by the March 6 trade deadline for asset collection and risk disturbing the chemistry created by individuals who see an opportunity no one could have realistically expected?
A playoff push wasn’t supposed to happen. Not this year. But here the Sharks are. Wennberg chipped in two assists Monday and while he isn’t an ideal No. 2 center — the 31-year-old Swede slots better as a No. 3 — he has 26 points and might be more valuable to them now than on the trade market.
“It’s a great team,” Wennberg said. “I really enjoy the teammates, everything around it as well. And then it’s the business side of it as well. Nothing I can really control. So obviously I’m a Shark right now and would love to be one, but we’ll see what happens.”
San Jose has nine picks in the 2026 draft, including two in the first and second rounds. At the start of the season, there was conjecture over whether it might be better to have one more bad year and get into the lottery mix for Gavin McKenna. Grier refuted that. Even owner Hasso Plattner said he’s got no interest in being in a lottery team again.
After all, the Sharks already hit the mother lode with Celebrini. Eklund and Smith, two other top-10 selections coming out of their horrendous stretch, are young top-six staples. Michael Misa, the No. 2 overall pick this year, could be a regular in 2026-27. They’ve got loads of cap space now and tons beyond this season. Grier can be selective with whom to keep around and who to part with.
That might mean extending Wennberg instead. Or even John Klingberg, who has responded to a bad first part of the season by scoring nine goals from the blue line while being their only true power-play threat from the back end. Klingberg is one of several on either one- or two-year contracts.
And what to do with Ferraro? The 27-year-old came aboard as a rookie at the start of a rudderless stretch following the Western Conference final run in 2019 and endured the teardown. He’s one of the UFAs and long been trade fodder, still playing a lot of tough minutes on a movable $3.25 million cap hit. He’d also like to see a playoff game with the club that drafted him. As he put it, meaningful hockey is more fun than developmental hockey.
“I’ve always said I love being here,” Ferraro said. “I love being a Shark. And I’m excited about the position that we’re in. I’m excited about the way we’re playing right now. We got some work to do. But the other stuff is out of my control. I’m just pumped up to be here right now and to be competing at the level that we’re competing at. Hopefully we can stack more wins together and continue to make progress.
“Starting that rebuild and now you’re starting to see it shift for us. It’s exciting. It’s fun hockey right now. And I feel like our ceiling is really, really high and I don’t think we’re close to getting there. It’s a good feeling right now. We just got to keep going.”
The Sharks are 19-17-3. They’ve got a minus-16 goal differential and have had only two true winning streaks, one of four games and the other of three. But they’ve only lost three in a row once since a 0-4-2 start and have responded every time it looks like they’re ripe to take a big spill. Their next win ties last year’s total.
They’ve got a moment to seize with a motley crew of disappointing Winnipeg, St. Louis and Utah, rebuilding Chicago and an average, uninspiring Seattle, Nashville, Calgary and Vancouver to beat out. The next few weeks could shape what they do in March.
“We talked about it after the break there,” Warsofsky said. “We don’t want to look back in March and April and be like, ‘Man, we had our chance.’ This is a big month for us. We know that. Our players know that. We need to play with some urgency in our game. I think our guys have a good understanding of that.”
Or, as Eklund put it, “This is way more fun, I’ll tell you that. Coming to the rink every day and winning games and being in this, it’s way more fun than last year.”