The National Hockey League Players Association (@NHLPA) announced today that San Jose Sharks center and alternate captain Macklin Celebrini has been named one of three finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award. The winner of the award will be revealed at a later date.
The Ted Lindsay Award is presented annually to ‘the most outstanding player as voted by fellow members of the NHLPA,’ and is the only NHL trophy voted on by players. Celebrini is the fourth-ever Shark to be a finalist for the award, joining Joe Thornton (2005-06), Brent Burns (2016-17) and Erik Karlsson (2022-23). Celebrini can become the second-ever teenager to win the award, potentially joining Sidney Crosby (2006-07).
Celebrini, 19, finished fourth in the NHL with 115 points, tied for fourth with 45 goals and was seventh with 70 assists in the regular season. The second-year centerman, who ranked third in the NHL in even-strength goals (37) and tied for third in even-strength points (82), set the franchise scoring record with his final point of the campaign, a goal that capped a three-point effort in the final game of the regular season. He completed the season factoring into 46.2-percent of all Sharks goals, the second-best such mark in the league this season and best ever by a league teen or any San Jose skater.
Celebrini’s 82 even-strength points and 37 even-strength goals were the most ever in a single campaign by a Shark, and his 18 three-point efforts tied Thornton for most by a skater in any of the team’s 35 seasons and his 31 multi-point contests tied for the second-most games with two or more points in a season in Sharks history. Celebrini finished 56 points ahead of the team’s next-closest scorer, the widest gap for any NHL team’s top scorer to its second-ranked since 1990-91.
His accomplishments during the 2025-26 campaign were historic among NHL teens, with Celebrini joining Gretzky (1979-80) as the only players under 20 years old to claim a 40-plus goal, 70-plus assist season. His point total was the third-best among teens in a single season in league history, trailing only Crosby (120 in 2005-06) and Gretzky (137 in 1979-80), and he joined the duo as the only three teens in league history to finish in the top five of a season’s scoring rankings.
Celebrini was voted Sharks Player of the Year by Bay Area media for the second consecutive season after earning the same award as well as Sharks Rookie of the Year in 2024-25.
The six-foot, 190-pound native of North Vancouver, British Columbia was selected by the Sharks in the 2024 NHL Draft, the team’s first-ever first-overall selection.
