Old-school thinking might keep Macklin Celebrini from winning Hart Trophy

Alex Wennberg carried the puck across the red line and fed Macklin Celebrini with a centering pass as the San Jose Sharks entered the Nashville Predators' offensive zone on a 3-on-1.

In a small act of unselfishness, Celebrini then passed the puck to Collin Graf, only to have the Sharks winger send it right back to the still-teenaged wunderkind, who quickly fired the puck into the open net with a defender bearing down on him for his second goal of the game.

The goal was the 44th of Celebrini's often breathtaking sophomore season and proved to be the game-winner as the Sharks held on for a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday night.

Going into the Sharks' game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, Celebrini remains fourth in the NHL with 112 points, two points behind Joe Thornton's all-time single-season Sharks record set in 2006-07.

Beyond that, Celebrini has also figured into a staggering 46.1% of the Sharks’ goals this season. With two games to go, the Sharks have 32 more points in the standings than they had last year.

Celebrini has also made the Sharks relevant again, especially locally, as SAP Center drew an average of close to 2,000 more fans per game this season than in 2024-25.

All at 19 years old.

Still, it likely won't be enough for Celebrini to become the second Hart Memorial Trophy winner in Sharks franchise history, after Thornton won the award in 2005-06 when he led the NHL with 125 points, 92 of which came with San Jose after a midseason trade from the Boston Bruins.

The Sharks were eliminated from playoff contention late Monday night when the Los Angeles Kings beat the Seattle Kraken 5-3, punching their own ticket to the postseason. San Jose, with 84 points, is five points back of the Kings with two games left to play.

Officially, the Hart Trophy, first awarded in 1923-24, is presented annually "to the player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team." The criteria do not require the player to be on a playoff team.

But that's sort of been an unofficial guideline when it comes to the award's voting, which is handled by the Professional Hockey Writers Association (of which the author of this story is a voting member).

In the over 100-year history of the Hart Trophy, only three players from non-playoff teams have won the award. The last was Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux after the 1987-88 season.

The Penguins that year finished one point out of a playoff spot, but Lemieux led the NHL with 168 points, 19 more than the second-place Wayne Gretzky in an 80-game season. Lemieux, then 22, scored or assisted on a staggering 52.7% of the Penguins’ goals.

The only other players from non-playoff teams to win the Hart Trophy were Chicago Blackhawks goalie Al Rollins in 1954 and Hall of Fame forward Andy Bathgate of the New York Rangers in 1959.

Both of those players played in the Original Six era, when four teams made the playoffs. Lemieux's award-winning year came when 16 of 21 teams made the NHL postseason.

Now, even when just 16 of the NHL's 32 teams make the playoffs, that old-school thinking still applies. The Sharks could finish just two or three points out of a playoff spot, but since they will not be in the postseason, Celebrini will likely not be at the top of many PHWA voters' ballots, based on the prevailing sentiment thus far.

The Hart Trophy will likely go to one of three players: Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, or Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov. Not coincidentally, they are the NHL's top three scorers.

All would be deserving of the award should they win. When McDavid, in particular, came into the Shark Tank last week, he was far and away the best player on the ice, hanging three goals and two assists on the Sharks in a 5-2 Oilers win that further damaged San Jose's playoff aspirations.

"He’s the best player in the league, and he’s also the fastest, so if you don’t really slow him down or get in his way, he’s just going to skate by you,” Celebrini said of McDavid after the game. “You’ve seen it his whole career. I watched it. I loved watching it when I was a fan, but super frustrating when you play against it.”

But as has been mentioned before, McDavid, with a league-leading 134 points, has Evan Bouchard, the NHL's top scoring defenseman with 92 points, as a running mate. That Leon Draisaitl guy, with 97 points in 65 games before his injury, isn't bad either.

Besides reigning Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar, MacKinnon has forward Martin Necas, the NHL's seventh-leading scorer with 99 points, in Colorado. Kucherov, with 130 points, has four teammates who have scored at least 23 goals this season, including Jake Guentzel, who had 38 goals and 88 points.

Second-year Sharks forward Will Smith has had a solid season statistically with 57 points in 67 games. Still, he remains 55 points behind Celebrini, who is the only forward in the NHL who leads his team in average ice time (21:26).

Bottom line: The Sharks didn't make the playoffs this season, but they're nowhere close without Celebrini. That alone, based on the definition of the award, might still make him as good a candidate as any.

"I can’t speak for other teams, and what other players have done for their teams," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said earlier this month when asked about Hart Trophy candidacy. "Mack, we see it, right? He’s our MVP. I think he’s very deserving of that, but let’s just get through the rest of the year and see where the chips lie.

"There’s a lot of outside noise. We can’t control that. Mack can’t control that. We’ll just keep plugging away."

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This story was originally published April 14, 2026 at 5:33 AM.