The San Jose Sharks chose center Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft on Friday in Las Vegas.
Celebrini, who turned 18 on June 13, was the youngest player in NCAA Division I last season and the youngest to win the Hobey Baker Award after producing 32 goals and 32 assists in 38 games at Boston University.
He’s just the fourth freshman to be named the top college player.
Former Sharks star Joe Thornton announced Celebrini as the first pick.
“Just a surreal feeling,” Celebrini said on the ESPN broadcast. “I’ve dreamed about this moment ever since I was a kid and for it to come true, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Celebrini, who is 6-foot, 190 pounds, also starred at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship last winter in Sweden, totaling four goals and four assists in five games for Canada.
Celebrini grew up in Vancouver, B.C., before his family relocated to the Bay Area of California six years ago when his father, Rick Celebrini, accepted a position with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors as the vice president of player health and performance.
“Off the ice, he is actually an alter ego of himself on the ice,” Rick Celebrini said. “He’s very relaxed and chill, very thoughtful at times. But on the ice, as soon as he steps on the ice, he just changes into competitive, snarling and aggressive.”
The Sharks landed the top pick for the first time in franchise history after finishing with the fewest points in the NHL last season (47).
They fired coach David Quinn six days after the end of the regular season and replaced him with Ryan Warsofsky, who was an assistant coach with San Jose the past two seasons.
Connor Bedard, the No. 1 overall pick by the Chicago Blackhawks last season, announced 18-year-old defenseman Artyom Levshunov as the second overall pick for Chicago.
Levshunov, a native of from Belarus, was the third-youngest player in college hockey as a freshman at Michigan State last season.
“That’s awesome,” Levshunov said of hearing Bedard announce his name. “Now it’s real.”
The Ducks picked third and surprised many by taking Beckett Sennecke, a 6-foot-2 forward for the Oshawa Generals of the Ontario Hockey League.
He had 27 goals and 41 assists during the regular season before putting up 10 goals and 12 assists in the playoffs to help the Generals to the OHL finals.
“I had a couple meetings yesterday and today and Anaheim wasn’t one of them,” Sennecke said. “I didn’t think it was a possibility, but obviously I’m super happy.”
Cayden Lindstrom went fourth overall to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Lindstrom is a power forward who scored 27 goals in 32 games for Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League before missing the second half of last season with a back injury.
Celine Dion came on stage to announce that the Montreal Canadiens selected Russian right wing Ivan Demidov fifth overall.
Demidov’s offensive skills are impressive on tape, but scouts have had few opportunities to view him in person while playing in the KHL’s junior league.
The Utah Hockey Club made its first pick in franchise history and grabbed Tij Iginla, the son of Hockey Hall of Fame forward Jarome Iginla, the 11th overall pick of the 1995 NHL Draft.
“You dream of it, (but) you don’t know how the day’s going to be,” Jarome Iginla said. “He’s worked hard and it’s a good day.”
Tij Iginla, who won’t turn 18 until August, had 47 goals and 37 assists in 64 games for the Kelowna Rockets of the WHL last season, and another nine goals and six assists in 11 playoff games.
The Ottawa Senators also selected a player that many analysts didn’t have in their top eight, taking defenseman Carter Yakemchuk of the Calgary Hitmen seventh overall.
Yakemchuk scored 71 points for the Hitmen last season, which was second-most on his team and fifth among all defensemen in the WHL.
The Seattle Kraken followed by selecting center Berkly Catton eighth overall. Catton is small in size, but makes up for it with elite skating and puck-handling abilities.
He spent over the last season with the Spokane Chiefs of the WHL, where he produced 54 goals and 116 points in 68 games.
