Macklin Celebrini wanted to leave money on the table

Marc-Olivier Cook
Macklin Celebrini wanted to leave money on the table
Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The Sharks still have a lot of work to do before they can seriously contend for the Stanley Cup. They need to add talent and develop their young players, but they're heading in the right direction.

Especially with Macklin Celebrini as the cornerstone of the organization.

It's no coincidence that the Sharks gave him such a lucrative contract ($18.8 million per season)—it's because they believe this young player can lead them to the promised land.

Celebrini, for his part, is happy with his deal (we can all agree that the opposite would have been surprising given the salary he'll be earning)… even though he decided to leave some money on the table to help his team.

The young player explained that he wanted to take into account the increase in the NHL salary cap… and, above all, ensure that his contract wouldn't complicate things for the Sharks.

“I wanted to make sure that, given how the NHL salary cap is evolving, this amount would, above all, be reasonable for the team.” – Macklin Celebrini

He could have taken the maximum and left his general manager to figure out the rest. But instead, he chose to maintain some flexibility to allow the Sharks to continue building their team.

That's the right mindset… and it says a lot about his priorities.

That's the right mindset to have because if Celebrini continues to develop as expected, the Sharks may eventually need every dollar they can get to build a team around him.

After all, he can't bring the Stanley Cup to California all by himself…

The young man may have just made a small sacrifice today that could pay off big for the entire organization in a few years. And you can't blame him for going after that much money either: he's already one of the best forwards in the NHL, and he wanted to be paid what he's worth.

Even if $18.8 million might seem like a lot (too much?) to some people…


In a nutshell

– Crazy!

– Too bad.

– Oops!

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