SAN JOSE – It wasn’t long after he set a new San Jose Sharks franchise record for points in a season — with yet another stirring performance — that Macklin Celebrini was setting up the team’s outlook for the following year.

“Obviously, you never know what’s going to happen,” Celebrini said Thursday after the Sharks’ 6-1 win over the lifeless Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. “Just a fresh mindset and looking forward to making the playoffs and making that push.

“We kind of got a taste of it this year. But now those expectations are there, and that’s what we want.”

With two more wins this season, or four more points in any fashion, the Sharks (39-35-8) could be on their way to Denver to take on the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in a tantalizing David vs. Goliath first-round matchup.

Established NHL power vs. plucky upstart, with all the pressure and expectations on the Avalanche, favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

As it is, the Sharks finished 11th in the Western Conference with 86 points, four back of the Los Angeles Kings for the second wild card spot. It was a 34-point improvement for the Sharks, whose 39 wins this season matched the total they had in the previous two years combined.

The Sharks finished 29th in 2023, and 32nd each of the past two seasons. Now, they feel like they’re on the verge of a breakthrough.

“(There’s) a lot of momentum,” said Celebrini, whose 115 points in 82 games broke Joe Thornton’s single-season record of 114 set in 2006-07.

“I for sure can speak for myself and a lot of the other guys in the room, I think it brings that mindset of, we got so close (to making the playoffs), and we kind of know we can do it. That’s going to be our goal next year.”

Considering Celebrini’s record and how he set it with a goal and two assists against the listless Jets, there was naturally (and understandably) a lot of euphoria after Thursday’s game. Enough, anyway. to perhaps forget about the recent stinkers the Sharks laid down in losses to the Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks and Vancouver Canucks last week.

The Sharks’ overtime loss to the 32nd-place Canucks in their final home game of the season last Saturday came a few days before the loss to the 31st-place Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.

Earn some more points in that final stretch, or tack on another win during some other downturn this season, and maybe the Sharks are getting ready for their first postseason appearance in seven years.

All this despite being 30th in the NHL in goals allowed per game (3.54).

Along with the good stuff, the Sharks would do well to also remember what went wrong this past season.

Nevertheless, the Sharks are hoping this season was not only another step toward making the playoffs next year, but the start of a years-long competitive window.

There are a lot of issues the front office and coaching staff need to address to make that happen, of course, but the Sharks had to start somewhere, and another year scraping the bottom of the NHL barrel was not going to be acceptable.

Addressing the Sharks after Thursday’s win, Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky thanked his players for laying the groundwork for better days ahead, even though some of the individuals he was speaking to will not be on the team next season.

“We’re going to look back at some point about (how this was the) team … that got this organization off the ground again, so that’s something to be damn proud of,” Warsofsky said. “Obviously, the room is going to change, but every one of you guys had a big part of getting this team back in the picture (with) some respect back in the league.”

Warsofsky is excited to see what Celebrini and the Sharks’ other young players can do in the future.

“Oh, man. Every time we think we have a ceiling (for Celebrini), we keep pushing the ceiling up,” Warsofsky later told reporters. “We think he’s going to be a player, obviously, that’s going to continue to get better in a lot of different ways. But I know he’s extremely determined to get this team into the playoffs and do some damage.

“I think that will be something that he’ll be excited for in the future.”

Warsofsky then became emotional as he spoke about the NHL’s young phenom he’s coached over the last two seasons.

“What people don’t realize is, he is an unbelievable human being, and that’s how special he is,” Warsofsky said of Celebrini. “He’s got a high character — you can tell he was raised with some really good parents. It’s hard to put into words because he’s a special kid.”

With the three points, Celebrini scored or assisted on 45.8% of the Sharks’ 251 goals this season. That percentage of a team’s goals in one year is the highest-ever for a teenager in NHL history, eclipsing Wayne Gretzky’s mark of 45.5% during the 1979-80 season when The Great One was 19.

That year, Gretzky scored or assisted on 137 of the Edmonton Oilers’ 301 goals.

Celebrini also joins Gretzky as the only teenagers in NHL history with at least 40 goals and 70 assists in one season.

In a recorded message for Celebrini shared on the Sharks’ social media channels, Thornton said, “Macklin. Macklin, Macklin, what a season. I thought the record was going to stand for a little bit longer than two years. I thought I’d at least get you out of your teenage years, but I guess not.

“But Mack, you know how I feel about you and your game, and I just love watching you. But congratulations, you know the Thorntons love you and can’t wait to see you keep breaking more of your own records.”

Celebrini and his teammates will instead take a spot in next season’s playoffs.