Should Celebrini and Smith be the Sharks’ top two centers this season?

SAN JOSE – There’s little question that Macklin Celebrini will provide a significant boost to this season’s San Jose Sharks team.

A tremendously skilled and dynamic two-way center with a nonstop motor and an off-the-charts compete level, Celebrini has the clear potential to be the Sharks’ next franchise player. By all accounts, he has the rare ability to raise the level of everyone around him — key for a team that won just 19 games last season.

“It’s big for the guys in the room and obviously for the fans, as well,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said Saturday after announcing Celebrini’s new contract. “I think there’s some buzz.

“But I think the guys in the room, the young players and the veterans alike, realize the special talent that Macklin is, and I think there’s some excitement for those guys to have the chance to play with him.”

And now that Celebrini, 18, and fellow top prospect Will Smith, 19, are under contract for the next three seasons, the Sharks know they’ll have a potent one-two punch down the middle for years to come.

But how soon might that happen?

The start of this upcoming season might not be out of the question.

Much like Connor Bedard’s NHL debut for the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 10, 2023, it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise to see Celebrini line up as the Sharks’ No. 1 center on Oct. 10, 2024, when San Jose hosts the St. Louis Blues to begin the year.

There’s also a chance Smith is the Sharks’ second or third-line center that night.

Grier said he doesn’t want to put too much on Celebrini’s plate immediately or make him feel like he has to produce offensively every night. That’s why he went out and signed Tyler Toffoli and Alexander Wennberg as free agents, adding to a top-six forward group that could also include Logan Couture, Mikael Granlund, William Eklund, and Fabian Zetterlund.

That appears to be the difference between Bedard’s debut and the one Celebrini and Smith might experience in three months.

In Bedard’s debut against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins, he had Taylor Hall and Ryan Donato as his linemates, two players who have been on the wing for most of their NHL careers. Celebrini could have Toffoli on his right side and an experienced center like Couture or Wennberg on his left.

The right-shot Smith, too, could benefit from having Granlund, the Sharks’ No. 1 center last season after Tomas Hertl’s injury and eventual departure, on his left and Zetterlund on his right.

The Sharks needed to give Celebrini and Smith that kind of support so that they would have a chance to succeed as rookies and not feel overwhelmed in the NHL.

“I’m sure there’ll be some ups and downs, but hopefully, we’ll have enough bodies here, enough veterans here to kind of help him along the way,” Grier said of Celebrini. “I’m not expecting him to go out there and be the MVP of the league or anything like that.

“There’s going to be bumps, there’s going to be ups and downs, and I’m sure he’ll navigate that, and we’ll help him navigate those things.”

Being a top-six center in the NHL is no easy task.

There’s the difficult job of producing against the opposing team’s top defense pair. And just in the Pacific Division, there’s the task of matching up against the likes of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton, Elias Pettersson or J.T. Miller in Vancouver, Vegas’ Jack Eichel or Hertl and Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar or Phillip Danault, just to name a few.

Eklund, for instance, was needed as the Sharks’ second-line center following the all-star break last season after Couture and Hertl were both injured. He struggled with just two goals and six points in 16 games and was routinely punished on faceoffs before Luke Kunin took over that role.

After he was moved from center back to the wing, Eklund flourished with 15 points in his last 14 games. Keep in mind, he was drafted seventh overall in 2021 — as a center.

It can be argued that Celebrini and Smith have greater upsides than Eklund. But wouldn’t it be easier for Celebrini and Smith to break into the NHL as wingers and give that responsibility of tracking those elite centers to more experienced players like Granlund, Wennberg, and Couture if he’s healthy?

Maybe. But with that added support around them, Grier said the idea, at least for now, is for Celebrini and Smith to begin as centers, although training camp and coach Ryan Warsofsky’s input will help finalize that decision.

“They’ve both been centers their whole life,” Grier said of Celebrini and Smith.

“Is it easier to be a wing? Sure, there’s a little less responsibility. But these guys have both been elite centermen their whole lives, and that’s what they’re used to playing, and that’s what they, I’m sure, they prefer playing.

“So we’ll see how it goes. We do have some options, guys that can kind of fill in and play center throughout the lineup, which was also part of the plan. Some of those guys can maybe be on their wings and help them with some faceoffs and some of their defensive responsibilities as well.”

Celebrini seemed undaunted when discussing competing against elite centers in the division and around the NHL.

“Those are guys that I’ve looked up to while I’ve been growing up, seeing them have the success that they’ve had, and other guys that I watch on TV every night,” Celebrini said. “So to be facing against them every night, it’s going to be pretty special.”

Regardless of what happens at the start of the season, Grier and the Sharks know they have two integral parts of the roster to build around. They’ll be in the middle, now or in the future.

“We feel really good about (Celebrini and Smith) being a really good one-two punch down the middle for a long, long time here,” Grier said. “We feel very fortunate to have them both and I don’t think it’s fair on any of these kids to say they’re going to be this or that.  They’ll all find their way, but we think they’re going to be really good players for a long time.”