San Jose Sharks star center Macklin Celebrini has taken the next step in his return from an illness.
Celebrini has been practicing with the team since Sept. 23, but in a limited fashion. Wednesday was a big step for the Sharks’ No. 1 center, as he skated without an orange non-contact jersey.
While he’s done that before, he would often separate from the group during specific drills. Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky emphasized that today was another step in the right direction, as they planned to put him through some game scenario drills.
“We’ll see how he does today,” Warsofsky said. “Good to get the orange jersey off, and we’ll see how he progresses. We are just getting some scrimmaging. We wanted him to get him a couple reps with 10 guys out there. They’ll do some game area stuff at some point.”
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Celebrini has shed the non-contact tag. He is on the ice right now and will take contact in some game area drills. #SJSharks— Max Miller (@Real_Max_Miller) October 1, 2025
Celebrini met with reporters following his skate with the San Jose Sharks non-game group on Wednesday.
“It sucks being out. [I’m] not participating as much as I wanted to,” Celebrini said. “Things kind of happen, and [you] just gotta deal with it. I’m excited for the start of the year and can’t wait to actually start playing games.”
The Sharks centerman went into detail about what the most frustrating part of being out of the lineup has been for him. Celebrini is a competitor, and his responses today show how much he’s missed playing in an actual game setting.
Celebrini also feels that it is essential to get play in a preseason game with all the new players on the roster to help build chemistry.
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“I think it’s a lot of timing. It’s something I’ve missed out on. The more games you get to play, the more timing and even chemistry you can build with new guys,” Celebrini said. “Our new defenseman and new forwards. We have a bunch of new forwards that we’re going to be playing with. Just building chemistry, starting to get familiar with guys. It’s tough to do that in practice.”
The San Jose Sharks host the Anaheim Ducks in their fourth preseason game of 2025. Celebrini will not play, but he hopes to get into one of the final two. The 19-year-old wouldn’t reveal which one he plans on playing.
“We got two [preseason] games left, so one of those,” Celebrini smiled.
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