Macklin Celebrini should be in Hart Trophy conversation. Here’s why he can win

Is there any one player in the NHL more valuable to his team right now than Macklin Celebrini is to the San Jose Sharks?

It’s worth asking since the Hart Memorial Trophy, the league’s most prestigious individual award, is presented annually “to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.”

Going by what’s happened over the last few weeks, few have matched that description better than the 19-year-old Celebrini.

Celebrini had three points Wednesday, including an eye-popping game-tying goal with 1:07 left in regulation time and a dazzling play to set up William Eklund for the overtime winner as the Sharks earned a stunning 4-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.

Celebrini now has 24 points in a 12-game point streak – tied for the third longest in team history — in which the Sharks have gone 8-4-0 and moved into the top wild card spot in the Western Conference.

With 67 points, Celebrini has factored into half of the Sharks’ 134 goals this season. He’s also played a role in 11 of the Sharks’ 21 game-winning goals, and six of eight overtime goals.

The 50% total is the second-highest goal share in the NHL behind Connor McDavid, a three-time Hart Trophy winner who, with 75 points, had been in on 51.7% of the 145 goals the Edmonton Oilers had scored before Thursday.

But while McDavid has forward Leon Draisaitl, himself a winner of the award in 2020, and Evan Bouchard, one of the NHL’s highest-scoring defensemen, backing him up with a combined 99 points before Thursday, Celebrini’s point total is more than double that of center Alexander Wennberg, the second-highest scoring Sharks player with 30 points.

That’s not to say Wennberg, Tyler Toffoli, Dmitry Orlov and Yaroslav Askarov are not incedibly valuable to the Sharks. But when it comes to who is most responsible for having the team squarely in the playoff picture, there’s really only one answer.

The Sharks are 22-11-1 when Celebrini has at least one point, and 0-7-2 when he is held scoreless.

Wednesday, Celebrini scored a spectacular tying goal with just over a minute left in the third period, then assisted on William Eklund’s goal at the 3:08 mark of overtime.

WILLIAM EKLUND ENDS IT pic.twitter.com/EokoTuuDke

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) January 8, 2026

In overtime, Celebrini created a turnover, took control of the puck along the boards in the neutral zone, carried it into the Kings zone and on a 2-on-1, fed Eklund, who scored past the outstretched arms of goalie Darcy Kuemper for his 11th goal of the season.

With Askarov pulled for the extra attacker, Celebrini’s game-tying goal late in the third period was one for the ages.

Celebrini took control of the puck just inside the blue line, stickhandled past Kings forward Warren Foegele at the top of the slot, eluded a stick check from Quinton Byfield and fired a shot past Kuemper to tie the game 3-3 with 1:07 to go in the third period.

“He just keeps impressing us and impressing us and getting better and better, and he took over that game there,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of Celebrini. “He makes a hell of a play on the 6-on-5 goal. He’s definitely turning into a superstar right before our eyes, that’s for sure.”

Askarov had 23 saves as the Sharks won for the fifth time in six games and not only moved into the first wild card spot in the Western Conference before Thursday’s games, but also one point back of first place in the tightly packed Pacific Division.

A year ago this week, just past the halfway point of the 2024-25 season, the Sharks had the NHL’s second-worst record and were nearly 30 points out of first place in the Pacific.

There’s little doubt that the Sharks feel they can make the playoffs for the first time since 2019.

“This is what we want. This is the position we want to be in, especially with where things were,” Celebrini said. “We’re doing a great job kind of handling all of it, and I think we have the group to do it. Obviously, there’s a whole half season left, and there’s a lot of work to do, but (we) feeling in our group, we’re confident in those situations, that when we’re down 3-2 or tied 2-2 late against a really, really good team, a playoff team.

“So I think there it’s a different kind of swagger and feeling in our group.”

“He drags guys into the fight. That’s what I’ll say,” Warsofsky said of Celebrini. “The stuff that he does on the ice and the way he competes, the skills and what he does, the God-given talent is one thing. But the way he drags our players in the fight, that’s what special players do, and that’s what’s most impressive for me.”

For Celebrini to become the second player in team history to win the Hart Trophy after Joe Thornton was voted the winner of the award after the 2005-06 season, the Sharks are going to have to make the playoffs, no questions asked. It won’t be easy, seeing as how the Sharks play nine of their next 12 games on the road, with 10 of the 12 against teams still in the playoff chase.

If Celebrini can navigate the Sharks through the next four weeks, then lead the way to a playoff appearance, there’s little doubt he’ll be in the Hart Trophy conversation.

“No moment is too big for him,” Warsofsky said. “I know it’s early in his career, but the competitiveness that this kid has. You would drop him in Vancouver in a rink with no roof against the Anaheim Ducks, and he’d be ready to play. That’s what type of competitor he is, and that’s what makes him special.”