He is the most DANGEROUS player in the league...

Macklin Celebrini is only 20 years old and I think he is the most dangerous player in the NHL. Here is my take. He is the next Connor McDavid and when we look back on this generation of new hockey players he will be the best one. That is a huge claim so I'm going to show you guys the numbers that back me up and also show you some that maybe argue against my point. Because last season Celebrini has done something that only three players have done in the last 47 years. So let's talk about where he came from. I mean, he won the Hobey Baker Award back in 2024 for BU, that's the best player in college hockey, and then the Sharks drafted him first overall in that year's draft. As an 18-year-old rookie, he scored 25 goals and 38 assists for 63 points in 70 games. Good, not yet great, then he took a huge step. Last season, Celebrini scored 45 goals and 70 assists for 115 points in 82 games. That is a Sharks franchise record. Since 1979-80, only three players have scored more points in a season at 19 or younger at the start of it. Wayne Gretzky with 164 and 137, Mario Lemieux with 141, and Sidney Crosby with 120. Celebrini is next on that list, ahead of Jimmy Carson, ahead of Dale Hawerchuk, and ahead of Connor McDavid. He finished fourth in the whole league in scoring. McDavid had 138, Nikita Kucherov had 130, McKinnon had 127, then Celebrini with 115. The Sharks, who were at the bottom of the league, improved by 19 wins and 34 points. They still missed the playoffs, but there was a reason people in San Jose finally have something to talk about again. And if you're enjoying our content like this, go down below, hit that subscribe button. It's completely free to do so. And we'll be back with the latest around the league every single day. Everyone wants to call somebody the next McDavid, the next Gretzky, the next Sidney Crosby. Most of the time, it's just lazy. So let's just test it in the case of Macklin Celebrini. Let's start with the same age between McDavid and Celebrini. McDavid at 19 and 2016-17 scored 30 goals, 70 assists for 100 points in 82 games. Celebrini at 19 years old scored 45 goals, 70 assists for 115 points again in 82 games. The same assists with 70, but he had 15 more goals and 15 more points. Now count games instead of seasons. In his first 161 NHL games, McDavid had 188 points. Celebrini has 192. In fairness, McDavid's rookie year was better. He scored 48 points in 45 games, more than a point per game before he got hurt. Celebrini's rookie year, he was at 0.9 points a game. The difference is what happened next. The goals tell the story. Celebrini has 75 in those 161 games. McDavid had 58. McDavid made players around him better with passes. Celebrini does that and he shoots. And for the record, Crosby had 222 points in his first 161 games. So Celebrini is not ahead of everybody, but he is ahead of McDavid. And McDavid is the best player alive. McDavid's next season at 20 was 108 points. Celebrini is at 1.56 points a game right now. If he holds that for 82 games, that's about 128 points. That is the comparison I care about. Obviously, if we're talking about who the best player in the world is right now, it is Connor McDavid. But we're making the debate on who looked like this at their age, and it's nobody. Now, dangerous is different from the best. Dangerous is a player that you cannot leave alone. So let's measure that. Celebrini is averaging 4.3 shots on goal a game this season. That is in the 99th percentile of the entire league. His 1.56 points a game is also in the 99th percentile. And on the power play, he is averaging 0.89 points a game. That is 100th percentile, the top in the league. This is not new. Last season, Celebrini was 4th in the NHL in goals with 45 and 4th in shots on goal with 287. Only McKinnon, McDavid, and Jason Robertson had more shots. And at even strength with no power play, his 82 points were the same as McDavid's 82, only McKinnon with 97, and Kucherov with 92 had more. Look at his last nine games. 14 points. Three of those games, three points each. Florida on October 1st, Detroit on October 17th, Montreal on October 20th. He had seven shots in Florida, seven in Detroit, and six in Montreal. Eight of the 14 points came on the power play, and he has gone pointless in three of the nine games, but never twice in a row. And when it matters, he decides it. The Sharks have won five games in overtime or a shootout this season. In four of them, Celebrini scored or set up the winner. October 1st against Florida, he assisted on the overtime goal. October 3rd against Los Angeles, he assisted on the overtime goal again. October 15th against Nashville, he won it in the shootout with his own goal. And on October 20th in Montreal, he scored the overtime winner on the power play. That is why he looks dangerous because every shift he is making something happen, and he's shooting pucks on net, and they're great shot opportunities. Now the honest part. Celebrini gives the puck away 2.22 times a game. That is the first percentile, worst in the league, but he takes it away 0.78 times a game, which puts him in the 98th percentile. But that is the cost of being the guy with the puck on your stick all night. You are going to give the puck away, but it's great that he is taking the puck away as much as he's giving it away as well. Now the biggest claim, the best player of this generation, not the year, the generation. I looked at every skater born in 2003 or later with at least 100 games since 2022-23. Connor Bedard is second at 0.93 points a game, Lane Hudson at 0.89, Dylan Gunther at 0.81, Y. Johnston at 0.80, and Celebrini is at 1.19. Only two players in that group have more points than Celebrini's 192. And that's Wyatt Johnson. He has 269 and Bedard has 206. They have played 175 and 61 more games. The money agrees. On July 29th, the Sharks signed him to a five-year $94 million extension starting in 27-28. That is about $18.8 million a year. And it makes him the highest paid player in the NHL. And he deserves it. When he signed, Celebrini kept it short. Quote, I couldn't be happier to sign an extension today. He has played in the biggest games too. At the 2026 Olympics he scored five goals and added five assists in 10 games for Canada. Canada lost the gold medal game to the United States two to one in overtime and Celebrini led all players with six shots on goal and look at who he is beating Connor Bedard went first in the 2023 draft in his first 161 games Bedard had 142 points Celebrini has 50 more so that is my case a player who scored like Crosby, Lemieux and Gretzky and had more points and a better start than McDavid and is the best scoring player in his class. But I said you'd see the other side, so here it is. McDavid is not slowing down. He has 31 points in 10 games this season, eight goals and 23 assists. That is 3.1 points a game. Yeah, you're seeing that right. Celebrini has 14 in nine. And last season, it was 138 for McDavid and 115 for Celebrini, a gap of just 23 points. The Sharks have not turned it into wins yet either. They are six and four and one with 13 points. fourth in the Pacific Division, and Celebrini has missed two of their first 11 games. And look at Thursday. The Sharks beat Ottawa 6-2, and Celebrini did not have a point. That is a good sign for San Jose, because a team that only wins when its star scores is not a team yet. But five of six of their wins this season needed overtime or a shootout, and that is a lot of close calls. One more thing, and that is not a stat. After too many men penalty this month, Celebrini did not blame anyone. He said, quote, that's on me. And again, I'm not saying that he's better than McDavid right now, but he is a very dangerous player, and nobody at his age has done what he is doing. So here's my verdict. Is Celebrini the most dangerous player in the NHL? I say yes. Most dangerous doesn't mean point totals. It means dangerous. He's in the 99th percentile for shots and 100th percentile in power play. That doesn't just come into the league every single day, and we're seeing it right now in Celebrini, and he's a very dangerous player. Look at what we found. A teenage season that only Gretzky, Lemieux, and Crosby have topped since the 1979-80 season. More points than McDavid through their first 161 games, the best scoring rate in his class by a wide margin, and a player who scored or set up the winner in four of the five Sharks' extra-time wins this season. He is the next McDavid. He is the best player of his generation, and remember where you heard it first. Is Celebrini the next McDavid, or is that too much? I want to hear your guys' thoughts on everything we talked about here today down below in the comments. I look forward to reading all of them. And that is it for me and another episode of NHL Digest. If you're enjoying the content here, go down below, hit that subscribe button. It's completely free to do so. Turn those notifications on so you do know when we upload. And if you're enjoying these new style of videos, let me know. And as always, I've been your host, Casey. Keep your stick on the ice.