- Macklin Celebrini says he would take less money on his next Sharks deal to help the team win
- The NHL 27 cover athlete could command $20 million or more once his entry-level contract ends
- Read below for the full quote and what a discount would mean for San Jose
Macklin Celebrini already sounds like a guy who has been paying attention to how the best players handle their money.
The 20-year-old Sharks center told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski he is open to taking a discount on his next contract if it helps San Jose build a winner.
Wyshynski asked whether the money Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon left on the table could push Celebrini to do the same thing.
“Yeah, 100%,” Celebrini said. “I mean, that’s why all of us play. We want to win. We’re competitive and we want to win.”
“Obviously, guys want to get paid, as they should, because you’ve got to make a living,” he added. “There are guys that deserve those numbers that are getting them, but of course you want to put your team in the best spot possible where you give a team the ability to make moves necessary to win.”
He is talking about walking away from a lot of money. Crosby has played on a bargain $8.7 million cap hit since 2008. MacKinnon barely moved the market in 2022 and signed for $12.6 million, just $100,000 above the next-highest player at the time.
Connor McDavid did Edmonton a similar favor last year, inking a two-year extension in 2025 at $12.5 million instead of chasing the biggest raise he could get.
Celebrini has one season left on his entry-level deal and has been eligible for an extension since July 1. With the cap climbing, he could realistically pull down $20 million a year or more. Leo Carlsson just became the league’s highest-paid player at $18 million after Anaheim matched Philadelphia’s offer sheet, and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman already floated that a Celebrini extension could top that number.
None of it is close. Celebrini made clear there is no urgency to get a deal done.
“I think it’s just whenever it makes sense for both sides,” he said. “I still have a year left. There’s no reason to rush. But yeah, I think we’ll kind of see how it goes.”
Whenever that deal comes, it will follow a monster sophomore season. Celebrini put up 115 points in 82 games and finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting. On Tuesday he became the youngest cover athlete in the history of the EA Sports NHL series.
A 20-year-old star who is willing to leave money on the table before he has even signed his second contract is exactly the kind of player a rebuilding team dreams about.
