Macklin Celebrini on Sharks contract talks, Sidney Crosby and more

It's good to be Macklin Celebrini these days.

The 20-year-old San Jose Sharks star was revealed as the youngest cover athlete in the history of EA Sports' NHL series, gracing both the Standard Edition and Deluxe Edition of "NHL 27" when they release later this year.

That honor follows the most rewarding season of Celebrini's hockey life. He set a Sharks franchise record for points in a season (115) while earning a nomination for the Ted Lindsay Award for most outstanding player, as voted on by the NHLPA. Celebrini made the Team Canada roster for the Winter Olympics -- with endorsements from Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon -- and led the tournament with five goals in six games as his nation won the silver medal in men's hockey.

The next few months could be even more consequential for Celebrini. He's eligible to sign a monster contract extension with the San Jose Sharks this summer. Meanwhile, many believe the Sharks could be a playoff team for the first time in Celebrini's three-season career.

We spoke with Celebrini last week about all of this, as well as Leo Carlsson's offer sheet, video gaming and how he would feel about LeBron James joining his Golden State Warriors, where his father Rick is the director of sports medicine and performance. Enjoy!

Got any exciting plans this summer?
Summer's going by quick. Kind of just enjoying it. I was at a couple of the World Cup games, which was awesome. But yeah, just keeping it low-key.

What did you think of the "NHL 27" cover? What was the process like in creating it?

I thought it was amazing. I loved it. Fairly simple process: They just sent it to me and I was just like, "Yeah, it looks good."

What's the gaming culture like inside the Sharks? Are people playing on long road trips?

There are a couple guys that like to play. The majority of guys I don't think play very much. We have a PS5 in our locker room lounge area. So if guys want to play, they can. We get on there a little bit after practice or if we're just hanging out for a little bit. It's pretty chill.

You recently won IIHF Male Player of the Year, based on not only what you did in the NHL, but also during the Olympics. What surprised you the most about being an Olympian?

It was so much fun. Obviously, it was a really, really, rough way to end, but I think just the whole experience was so cool, just being in the Olympic Village and getting that experience with other athletes that were there. I heard from a couple of the guys that had been there before that it was a little bit different this year with the different villages and the mountain sports not being able to come into the main village where we were. But I mean, it's still really, really cool just to be in that whole environment.

It's been an interesting offseason for the Sharks. How happy are you that you'll be able to watch new San Jose defenseman Jacob Trouba hit other people rather than being worried about getting hit by Jacob Trouba?

[Laughs] It'll be great not having to check over my shoulder, see if he's coming. I'm super excited to have him and all the other guys we've added this offseason onto our roster. I think we're all really excited for what we have and what we're building. I think we're all just excited to get going.

This is one of your first offseasons where you've had to deal with a good amount of people leaving. How has that been for you seeing William Eklund[traded to Ottawa] and some of those guys on their way out?

It's super tough. Like you said, it's my first time really going through that, where we have a lot of guys that I've been with the last two years, and have been with the organization for quite a while, move on. It's tough obviously just as friends and guys that you've grown close to over the last couple years just going through stuff together. That's the hardest part.

But obviously in different cases for every guy, it's probably a better opportunity or just a different opportunity. Something that they can get excited about and move on to. I know from the guys that I've talked to that they're really excited about where they're going. But we'll miss them and miss having them around the locker room.

Another interesting change for you as an NHL player: This is the first time there are now expectations on your team to succeed next season. With the improvements that you've made and where you guys finished last year, a lot of people expect the Sharks to break the playoff drought that goes all the way back to 2019. How does that feel to have your team emerge from the rebuild and all of a sudden people are expecting you to be a playoff team?

It's amazing. It's really exciting. That should be our goal for this year. We've missed playoffs for seven years, so that'd be something that would be a great accomplishment for us -- getting over that hump. It'd be a great step for our whole group to get that experience. And I think we have the team to do it and make a little bit of a run.

Do you think the way that Mike Grier has worked this offseason, adding the veterans that he's added, is an endorsement that he feels the team is ready to make that leap?

Yeah, I do. That's the message that he was wanting to send was that we're ready to take that next step and really start making a push for the playoffs.

My first year was tough, just still wanting to get a lottery pick and still in the midst of that rebuild. But I think obviously we got some lottery luck this summer and we got a pretty amazing player at No. 2[forward Ivar Stenberg] and some other great players throughout the draft. I think now it's just kind of turned that corner and I think we should all be excited just wanting to win more.

You're the first player I've spoken with since the Leo Carlsson offer sheet drama. What have the conversations been like among the boys about that contract and what the Flyers attempted to do here and with the bag that Leo secured?

I've talked to a couple guys about it. I think at first everyone was kind of surprised just because $18 million [annually] hasn't really flown around the NHL much at all. So, obviously, you look at it as a big number, but he's an amazing player. He got it because he deserved it.

I think that's going to start being the new normal in the NHL, those kinds of numbers with the cap going up and all that stuff. So I think obviously it was really good for him to get that number and it's also good for everyone else. That means the salaries are raising for players. That's the most important thing for a lot of the guys, just to get that financial stability.

Immediately everybody's like, "Alright, what's Connor Bedard getting this summer?" And then everybody's like, "Alright, Macklin can sign his contract this summer too." I know you've said recently there's really nothing to report on the contract front quite yet, but are you hungry to get this thing done earlier than later with the Sharks. Could you wait beyond this summer and feel OK about things?

I think it's just whenever it makes sense for both sides. I still have a year left. There's no reason to rush. But yeah, I think we'll kind of see how it goes.

Sid and MacKinnon have taken you under their wing. Those two guys have taken less on big contracts to try to help their team under the cap. Maybe it was a different time, because the cap was a lot lower than it is now, but it was their philosophy to do that. Does what those guys did, when they were faced with potentially huge raises, factor into your thinking at all?

Yeah, 100%. 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. 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. I think all that goes into the decision.

Like I said, I haven't really had many discussions about it or thought through it too much yet. Still kind of on the fence. But yeah, there's definitely a lot to think about.

We've talked before about you growing up around elite athletes because of your dad. I've read about how you reacted when you found out Sidney Crosby wasn't a robot. Was it still surprising to find out that he's just a guy, or having been around all those NBA stars, you know that these are just people?

I think being around some of the NBA guys, you start to realize that they're just human beings. But for someone that I idolized and looked up to my whole childhood and aspired to be like, I think it was a little bit different just being able to hang out with him and talk to him for those first couple times.

I don't know what the relationship with a Sidney Crosby is like. Can you just text him and be like, "Hey, what's up?"

I try not to bother him too much.

Finally, given your history with the Golden State Warriors, you've got LeBron golfing with Draymond. You have Steph saying he's reached out to LeBron as a sort of recruiting tactic. As a fan, how much would it blow your mind to see LeBron play with the Warriors?

It'd be weird, just because of that rivalry with him on the Cavs. I feel like they've been going at it every step of the way. It'd be like if Ovi and Sid were played together. It'd be a little bit weird at first, but I think it'd be cool for the game.br/]