Macklin Celebrini’s return comes at a great time for Sharks

Macklin Celebrini is finally back. The San Jose Sharks‘ first-overall pick in 2024 had an electric debut game before missing the last several weeks with injury, and now he returns after the Sharks went on a three-game winning streak last week.

Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talk about Celebrini’s return, and what it means for the Sharks, on Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, it’s been a vibe change for sure. You win three in a row, that’ll do that for you. But take a look at this goal from Macklin Celebrini. We’ve missed this! This was seven minutes into his NHL career! I mean, are you kidding me? A play like that, the confidence.

And the truth is, unfortunately for him, he was dealing with this really since training camp, the same injury. He really wanted to participate in playing as NHL debut, gets through it, but has missed all that time since then, three weeks plus. Everyone’s been waiting, not just fans in San Jose, but everyone around the league. I mean, we missed out, unfortunately, on two Celebrini-Bedard games that would have been awesome and electric, including one last week.

So the Sharks desperately need a little shot in the arm, even though things have gotten a little bit better. And if you overcoach Ryan Warsofsky into his NHL career, you’re thinking, “Man, if this guy doesn’t get a win,” you only go back to 10 days now, this might stretch well into November that he’s waiting to get his first NHL win as head coach.

So it feels a lot better there, I can tell you that. And it’s going to feel even more better than that, if that makes any sense, once they get Celebrini back tonight. That’s just a total game changer.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Absolutely. I thought it was cool in his debut, whenever he would pick up the puck, that crowd, the noise came up a little bit and there’s murmurs, and it gave me flashbacks to watching Connor McDavid as first few seasons in Edmonton. Every time he’d wind up, the crowd would just “oooooh”, and we got that with Celebrini. It was neat to see the Sharks’ fanbase kind of rejuvenated.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, the Shark Tank, for 20-some years, was one of the best places in the league to watch a game. It hasn’t been for a long time, attendance has been down. There hasn’t been a reason to watch this team. Celebrini’s giving them that, and now Will Smith will have someone to ride shotgun with.

You can watch the full episode here…