- Elliotte Friedman says Macklin Celebrini’s next Sharks contract could challenge Leo Carlsson’s league-high $18 million AAV
- Celebrini is eligible for an extension now and could top the biggest deal in NHL history
- Read below for how Friedman expects the negotiation to play out
Macklin Celebrini’s next contract might end up being the biggest in NHL history.
Elliotte Friedman spent part of his final 32 Thoughts podcast of the season working through what it will cost the San Jose Sharks to lock up their 20-year-old center. With Leo Carlsson’s $18 million offer sheet resetting the market in Anaheim, Friedman figures Celebrini is the next player in line to push that ceiling even higher.
Friedman laid out how he expects the conversation to start.
“This is the way that this conversation will go with San Jose,” Friedman said. “They’re going to say, ‘Macklin, you deserve the max, on the ice, off the ice. You deserve it one billion percent.'”
Catch Friedman’s full breakdown on the season finale of 32 Thoughts:
The max is a real number here. Under the current CBA, one player can earn 20 percent of the cap, which comes out to $20.8 million next season and $22.6 million in 2027-28. No player has ever signed for the maximum, and Friedman thinks Celebrini is the best candidate the salary cap era has produced.
Then comes the other side of the table. Friedman imagined the Sharks trying to talk the number down so they can build a roster around him.
“Is there any way we can sign you without giving [the max] to you?” Friedman said, playing the front office. “So we can do some things around you.”
San Jose has every reason to pay up. Celebrini put up 115 points this past season and broke Joe Thornton’s franchise record that had stood since 2006. He finished with 45 goals and 70 assists across all 82 games, joined Wayne Gretzky as the only teenagers ever with a 40-goal, 70-assist season, and landed as a Ted Lindsay Award finalist and a Hart Trophy candidate.
The record came in the season finale against Winnipeg, and Thornton passed the torch himself:
There’s a clock on this too. Celebrini has one year left on his entry-level deal, and if the Sharks don’t get an extension done before next July 1, he becomes an RFA without arbitration rights, exactly the type of player rivals target with offer sheets.
Friedman said flatly that San Jose will sign him before it gets to that point. General manager Mike Grier already flagged Celebrini and Will Smith as the front office’s next contracts to sort out. After watching the Carlsson saga blow up Anaheim’s summer, the Sharks know better than to leave the door cracked.
Whatever number Celebrini and the Sharks settle on, it’s going to be the one every agent points to next.
