Sharks center Macklin Celebrini will suit up for Canada at the upcoming World Championship, reports Max Miller of Sharks Hockey Digest. The rookie was actually originally named to the squad last year but ultimately didn’t play. The number one pick last year, Celebrini had an impressive rookie campaign, tallying 25 goals and 38 assists in 70 games to lead San Jose in scoring, five points ahead of William Eklund, who will play for the host Swedes. Meanwhile, Miller adds that it’s unclear if their other top rookie, Will Smith, will play for Team USA at the event. Smith was fourth on the Sharks in scoring with 45 points in 74 games.
More from San Jose:
- Defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin underwent successful shoulder surgery and is expected to be ready for the start of training camp, relays Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now (Twitter link). The 23-year-old suited up for 30 games with the Sharks this season, collecting nine points and 51 blocked shots while averaging a little over 18 minutes a night of playing time. Mukhamadullin also had nine assists in 21 games with the AHL’s Barracuda. He’s expected to push for a full-time lineup spot next season.
- The team announced (Twitter links) that they’ve assigned forward Daniil Gushchin and defensemen Jimmy Schuldt and Lucas Carlsson to AHL San Jose. Gushchin got into a dozen games with the Sharks this season, notching just one assist. Meanwhile, Carlsson had a goal and three assists in 13 games while Schuldt was held off the scoresheet in his eight outings, his first NHL action since late in the 2018-19 campaign. The Barracuda recently clinched a playoff spot and will certainly be happy to have one of their top scorers and two of their better blueliners back for the postseason.
25 goals, BUT not the most by a rookie!
10 less games – easily a better season than Michkov. Hutson will win the Calder. Celebrini second. Wolf third. Michkov fourth.
Playing fewer games and scoring fewer goals means having a better season in your world? Quite a theory. Back here in reality, my crazy assumption was that the idea is to play as many games and score as many goals as possible.
If you could earn 300 bucks in 10 hours or 302 bucks in 12 hours, what would you do?
The math is much easier than you guys are making it out to be. If Calgary made the postseason, then Wolf would win. They didn’t. The Habs, did though, largely on the back of Hutson. So it’s obviously his, over the playoff-missing Celebrini and Michkov.
People can play the math in a lot of ways to favor their guy. It’s harder to evaluate goalies but Wolf was outstanding. In building a case Hutson it’s obvious those are incredible numbers for a rookie defenseman and he was a big part in getting his team to the playoffs. In arguing for Celebrini Is point out he had a lot less talent around him. Put him on Montreal and he’s got maybe 80 points. He’s also just turned 18 last June making him 3 years younger than Hutson and two years younger than Michkov. Whomever wins, wins. All will be fun to watch in the coming years.
Celebrini is clearly going to be the best player of the bunch but what a group of rookies. Celebrini, michkov, hutson, wolf, smith all looked excellent and are future all stars.
Someone in the east will win it. The west coast doesn’t get very many eyes.
Yet somehow in this era of imaginary east coast bias, western conference players have won 5 of the past 6 Calders.