- Macklin Celebrini tops The Athletic’s annual under-23 rankings
- Connor Bedard, Matthew Schaefer and Juraj Slafkovsky fill out the top four
- Read below for the full top 10 and the scouting notes behind it
Macklin Celebrini is the best player under 23 in hockey, and it wasn’t a close call.
Scott Wheeler released his annual under-23 rankings at The Athletic on Wednesday, and the Sharks center sits alone in Tier 1 as the only player graded as an elite NHLer right now. Everybody else starts a tier below him.
Here’s how the top 10 shook out:
Wheeler’s write-up on Celebrini reads like a scout running out of things to pick apart.
“Celebrini is already one of the very best players in the NHL. He’s one of the few players I’ve scouted where it’s hard to see any noticeable weakness.”
The 20-year-old put up 45 goals and 70 assists for 115 points in 82 games last season. Wheeler has him projected as a two-way matchup center who should be one of the elite players in the league for the next decade.
Take a look at what that season looked like:
Bedard lands second after a year that started hot and cooled off once he came back from injury. He finished with 30 goals and 75 points in 69 games, and Wheeler still projects him as a star No. 1 center who leads the league in scoring at some point.
Third goes to Matthew Schaefer, a year removed from going first overall to the Islanders. He posted 23 goals and 59 points in 82 games as a rookie and got tagged as a future star No. 1 defenseman.
Juraj Slafkovsky rounds out the top four in Tier 2 with Bedard and Schaefer. Tier 3 picks up Leo Carlsson, Logan Cooley, Beckett Sennecke and Ivan Demidov.
- 1. Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks
- 2. Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks
- 3. Matthew Schaefer, New York Islanders
- 4. Juraj Slafkovsky, Montreal Canadiens
- 5. Leo Carlsson, Anaheim Ducks
- 6. Logan Cooley, Utah Mammoth
- 7. Beckett Sennecke, Anaheim Ducks
- 8. Ivan Demidov, Montreal Canadiens
- 9. Adam Fantilli, Columbus Blue Jackets
- 10. Michael Misa, San Jose Sharks
Fantilli and Misa close the list out in Tier 4, joined there by Lane Hutson and Cutter Gauthier just outside the 10. This all comes a day after Wheeler ranked all 32 pipelines, where San Jose came out on top as well.
Card collectors landed on the same answer a few days early:
A one-of-one Celebrini rookie card sold for $1.28 million on Saturday, the biggest public sale for any hockey card without Wayne Gretzky on it. Celebrini only turned 20 in June, and the rest of this list is chasing him.
