Even before the San Jose Sharks made him the No. 1 pick of the 2024 Draft, Macklin Celebrini was seen as a two-way player in the mold of Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews.
Daily Faceoff’s Colby Cohen, for example, called Macklin Celebrini a Crosby/Toews “hybrid” right after the Sharks selected him.
So it makes sense, on the eve of Celebrini’s first showdown with Toews, that the 19-year-old did indeed look up to the 37-year-old, back with the Winnipeg Jets after a two-season layoff.
“He was someone I looked up to,” Celebrini said, sharing that his first jersey was a Chicago Blackhawks’ Toews jersey. “It’s gonna be really cool to play against him.”
There’s no doubt, even from a distance, that the young San Jose Sharks star took something from the three-time Stanley Cup winner and long-time Hawks captain.
“It’s tough to emulate a player like that, he’s just so unique,” Celebrini said. “You talk about one of the best defensive forwards, his ability to win faceoffs. And just how he tied that team together, that Blackhawks team. That’s why he’s the captain. He just did all the little things exceptionally well.”
Celebrini hopes that he can guide the Sharks to a championship, just like Toews did with the Blackhawks in 2010, 2013, and 2015.
But could Celebrini be…better?
Celebrini is off to a torrid start this season with 21 points, tied with Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel for the league lead. Those aren’t heights that the more defensive Toews ever came close to achieving.
Ex-San Jose Sharks head coach David Quinn might have called it, when San Jose clinched the best Draft lottery odds late in the 2023-24 season, before the 2024 Draft.
“[He’s] what we want to be as an organization, what the sport demands,” Quinn said then. “He’s got high, high skill, but he’s got a hardness to him that allows him to be a different type of player. When I watch him, I think Jonathan Toews a lot. Maybe a little bit more skill.”
