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What Sharks captain Macklin Celebrini learned from Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton
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- What Sharks captain Macklin Celebrini learned from Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton
What Sharks captain Macklin Celebrini learned from Sidney Crosby, Joe Thornton originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Sharks star Macklin Celebrini has had plenty of time to think about what leadership means to him this year — and it started long before Joe Thornton ever handed him the captain's jersey for the first time on Friday.
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Celebrini captained Team Canada at the 2026 IIHF World Hockey Championship, sharing a locker room with veterans like Sidney Crosby, J.T. Miller and Ryan O'Reilly. Reflecting on that experience, Celebrini said the responsibility never felt like something he had to carry alone.
"That was a tremendous honor, wearing it for my country and having some of those guys in that room — Sid, JT and O'Reilly," Celebrini said. "There were plenty of leaders in that room, and they were so gracious to let me take that responsibility and have that trust in me. Throughout the tournament it was just a lot of learning, asking them questions, being around those guys and watching how they do things. It was more visual than anything, but they were always there to help out."
Celebrini said his conversations with Crosby went beyond just leadership itself, touching on the specific challenge of entering the league as a young, high-profile player.
"Not specifically about wearing the C, but we had a couple conversations about how he handled coming into the league," Celebrini said. "He was a little younger, a different time, went through some things — how he felt, the guys that supported him, how much that meant to him, and how he just kept doing his thing and being himself."
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The deepest well of emotion, though, came back to Thornton — the Hockey Hall of Famer whose own franchise scoring record was broken by Celebrini this past season, and who personally delivered the captaincy news during the team's meeting Friday.
"Getting the jersey from Jumbo — him and his family have such a special place in my life," Celebrini said. "With how they accepted me into their family, and everything they've done for me, I can't really put into words how much his family means to me."
Celebrini lived with Thornton and his family during his first two NHL seasons, an arrangement that shaped far more than just his transition to the league. At 20 years old, he becomes both the youngest captain in franchise history and the youngest active captain in the NHL — handed the title by the very player whose scoring record he just surpassed, in the same city, in the same locker room, from the same person who welcomed him into his home.
