San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini had whatever the opposite of a sophomore slump is. After dropping 63 points in his rookie season, the 20-year-old threw down a wildly impressive 115 points (46G, 70A).
It was an impressive tally that helped him earn a spot on the Team Canada roster at the 2026 Olympics, where the team took silver — people forget the Canadians lost to Team USA (alright, no one forgets; I just like to bring it up) — and that has earned Celebrini another honor.
EA Sports has revealed that he'll grace the cover of "NHL 27," officially making him the youngest player ever to get the nod.
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It also makes him the first Shark to appear on a cover since Owen Nolan was on the front of "NHL 2001."
That was so long ago at this point that I think I ordered that game off the back of a cereal box like it was a pair of X-ray specs or sea monkey eggs. Tell that to a kid today and watch all the synapses in their brains start misfiring because they have no concept of anything other than downloading something from the PlayStation Store.
I was surprised to hear that Celebrini was the youngest to appear on a cover, and if you think about it, it's super impressive.
There have been some great players who hit the ground running in the NHL, but were a bit older than Celebrini when they landed a cover. Alex Ovechkin landed "NHL 07" while Connor McDavid was on "NHL 18," for instance. Both were young, but not as young as Celebrini.
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You'd think Sidney Crosby would've snagged a cover early in his career, but he famously has never been on one.
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Of course, now everyone — especially Sharks fans — is going to sit back and hope that Celebrini doesn't succumb to any kind of cover athlete curse.
Especially because the Sharks continue to look like they're on course to be back in the playoff picture, perhaps as soon as this season.
They have a wealth of young talent, and just missed out on the second wild card spot in the Western Conference by four points.
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