Trophy Tracker: Sharks captain Celebrini early-season favorite to win Hart 

To mark the beginning of the 2026-27 regular season, NHL.com is running its first installment of the Trophy Tracker series. Today, we look at the race for the Hart Trophy, given annually to the top player adjudged to be the most valuable to his team.

From heartthrob to the Hart Trophy.

Macklin Celebrini, the San Jose Sharks’ 20-year-old superstar recently featured in GQ Magazine and NHL In Focus, has the hockey world at his fingertips and a chance to become the fourth youngest player in League history to win the most prestigious regular-season individual award.

After finishing fourth in in the NHL last season with 115 points (45 goals, 70 assists), Celebrini is the early-season favorite to win the Hart according to a vote of 16 NHL.com writers and editors, eight of whom had the Sharks captain first on their list. 

Celebrini edged Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid by eight voting points (67-59).

McDavid and Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, the second runner-up with 54 voting points, each received four first-place votes. Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, last season's Hart Trophy winner, was fourth in the voting with 28 points.

If Celebrini wins it, he will follow Wayne Gretzky (1979-80; 19 years, 71 days), Sidney Crosby (2006-07; 19 years, 244 days) and McDavid (2016-17; 20 years, 86 days) as the youngest to win the Hart Trophy. Gretzky also won it in 1980-81, when he was 20 years and 69 days old. 

Celebrini, selected by the Sharks with the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, will be 20 years and 301 days old on April 10, the last day of the regular season.

"It's crazy to see what he's done, and playing against him is, I mean, it's not fun," Montreal Canadiens forward Cole Caufield said of Celebrini. "Like, he's so good and I think what makes him so special is his work ethic. Yeah, he's got all the talent in the world, but if you watch his shifts, it seems like he never gets tired. He's always hunting down the next thing and I think that's contagious for their team. I think they're very fortunate enough to get a guy like that to kind of change it around."

Celebrini's value to the Sharks was noticeable when a lower-body injury kept him out of San Jose's game against the Dallas Stars on Monday. 

He had five assists in the first two games and San Jose (2-1-0) won each in overtime against the Florida Panthers and Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks managed 13 shots on goal in a 5-0 loss without him in Dallas then defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 in overtime at Enterprise Center on Thursday.

"We just couldn't get any traction," Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of the loss to the Stars.

Celebrini's grip is the biggest reason why the Sharks are one of the fastest-rising teams in the League.

They finished last season with 86 points, a 34-point improvement from Celebrini's rookie season of 2024-25, when he had 63 points (25 goals, 38 assists) in 73 games. The Sharks missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs by four points last season. 

They're expected to make it this season, provided Celebrini doesn't miss too much time.

Celebrini's rise to superstardom and the Sharks' climb up the NHL standings is comparable to what the Pittsburgh Penguins experienced in Sidney Crosby's early years. 

The Penguins finished second to last with 58 points in Crosby's rookie season of 2005-06 despite the fact that he had 102 points (39 goals, 63 assists) in 81 games.

They made the playoffs in Crosby's second season, when he won the Hart Trophy and the Art Ross Trophy, finishing with 120 points (36 goals, 84 assists).

The Penguins reached the Stanley Cup Final in Crosby's third season (2007-08) and won the Stanley Cup in his fourth (2008-09).

The Sharks are a step behind having missed the playoffs in Celebrini's second season, but their turnaround last season seems to be a sign that there are much bigger things to come, with Celebrini the most valuable part of the rise.

"Being on a team that was pretty poor when he got there and being able to turn that around; I don't know if anyone's ever going to be Sidney Crosby, but it was very Crosby-esque in my brain," Seattle Kraken forward Matty Beniers said. "I mean, those guys are all excellent."

Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis): Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks, 67 points (eight first-place votes); Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers, 59 (four first-place votes); Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche, 54 (four first-place votes); Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning, 28; Nick Suzuki, Montreal Canadiens, 6; Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers, 5; David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins, 5; Matthew Schaefer, New York Islanders, 4; Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs, 3; Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild, 2; Leon Draisaitl, Oilers, 2; Cole Caufield, Canadiens, 2; Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils, 1; Jason Robertson, Dallas Stars, 1; Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes, 1

NHL.com director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke and NHL.com senior writer Amalie Benjamin contributed to this story.