Big Update: Macklin Celebrini an Olympic “Lock” for Team Canada

Macklin Celebrini is one of the best young players to hit the NHL in a long time. He’s put up 20 goals before Christmas and 57 points in 38 games. That’s third in NHL scoring behind only Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.

Celebrini’s also a plus-13 on a team that hasn’t exactly been rolling four lines of comfort. That kind of scoring territory usually belongs to men with mortgage payments and Olympic experience already under their belts. But at 19, he’s no longer “promising”; he’s undeniably delivering.

Celebrini Says He’s Not Thinking About the Olympics

Celebrini keeps telling us he’s not thinking about the Olympics. He can’t control those decisions. And he’s right. But history tells us something else: Team Canada doesn’t ignore players like this for long — not when the lights get brighter, and the ice gets smaller.

What struck me most listening to him after the Sharks’ win in Vancouver wasn’t the numbers. It was the way he talked about the work. The way he framed the season was not as a breakout, but as a response to a slide. A young player who understands correction before celebration usually lasts.

There’s no longer any mistake about Celebrini’s talent. He’s not on a hot streak; his whole season is a hot streak. Get ready for the new normal in the NHL. The youngster has seven straight games with points. He’s put up five goals and nine assists in that stretch. He’s thrown 121 shots on the net in that streak. That tells you that he doesn’t wait for the game to come to him. He goes looking for it.

Celebrini’s Confidence and Skill Could Help Team Canada

What Celebrini brings could matter when you’re building an Olympic roster. Team Canada doesn’t need another highlight reel. It needs players who can survive shifts where nothing clean happens. Players who can think fast when space disappears. Players who don’t need the game tilted in their favour to influence it.

Young as he is, Celebrini already plays that way. Watch his goals closely, and they are not accidents. His one-timer against his hometown Vancouver Canucks wasn’t rushed. The setup on the John Klingberg goal earlier in the game wasn’t forced. He processes the ice like someone who’s already lived a few playoff disappointments — which is remarkable, considering how young he still is.

Celebrini Also Plays Defence, Which Might Be the Biggest Reason to Consider Him

And then there’s the defensive side. Plus-13 at his age, on that roster, isn’t padding. It’s awareness. He gets positioning and understands that offence doesn’t excuse responsibility. Team Canada has learned — sometimes painfully — that you can’t just stack talent and hope the details take care of themselves.

Celebrini already looks like a detail guy. The other thing he brings — and this is harder to quantify — is freedom. Put him on a line with veterans, and he doesn’t shrink. Put him with other young players, and he doesn’t drift. He adapts. That flexibility is exactly what Olympic hockey demands: line combinations change on the fly, and chemistry has to form by Tuesday afternoon.

Celebrini a Lock For Team Canada?

None of this is to say he has to make the team. It just seems like it’s hard to leave him off. The panel on Hockey Night in Canada said Saturday that they all have him as a “lock”, with Kevin Bieksa going so far as to suggest he’s a lock for the top six.

They aren’t the only analysts and insiders who are starting to feel Celebrini’s selection is inevitable. At some point, the question stops being whether he’s ready and becomes where they put him on the roster and how best to utilize his talents.

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