Macklin Celebrini and the $20 Million Question San Jose Has to Answer

Macklin Celebrini just became the youngest cover athlete in the history of the NHL video game, unveiled as the face of NHL 27 at 20 years old. It might be the second-biggest thing to happen to him this summer. The first is the contract the San Jose Sharks now have to figure out how to pay - one that could make him the highest-paid player in the sport.

Two years into his career, Celebrini has gone from a No. 1 pick on a bottom-feeder to a genuine franchise centerpiece, and the numbers behind the leap explain why San Jose is bracing for a record.

From No. 1 Pick to Franchise Player

Celebrini's rookie season was the kind of quietly brilliant year that gets buried on a bad team. He scored 63 points as an 18-year-old on a San Jose club that finished near the bottom of the league, dragging a minus-31 that said far more about his teammates than about him. In year two, everything changed at once. He jumped to 45 goals and 115 points, his plus-minus swung nearly 40 goals in the right direction, and the Sharks went from punchline to the fastest-rising team in hockey.

A 52-point jump in a single season, at 19, is not development. It is a superstar arriving. Only a short list of players in NHL history have posted a 115-point season before turning 20, and every name on it is one San Jose would happily see Celebrini join.

The $20 Million Question

Here is where it gets expensive. Celebrini is heading toward the end of his entry-level deal, and the extension on the horizon is shaping up to be the richest in the sport. Reporting around the Sharks points to a number that could exceed $20 million a year - which would blow past the ceiling Anaheim set only weeks ago, when it matched Leo Carlsson's $18 million offer sheet to take on the league's largest cap hit.

That is the strange new math of a rising salary cap and a generational talent arriving at the perfect moment. The cap is climbing toward $104 million and beyond, and a 20-year-old scoring at a 115-point clip holds every ounce of the leverage. San Jose will not flinch at the term. The only question is the number, and the number is going to be historic.

What It Means for San Jose

The good news for the Sharks is that they saw this coming and built for it. San Jose has spent the last two offseasons hoarding assets - three first-round picks in this year's draft alone - then spent aggressively in free agency, adding Jacob Trouba and Mason Marchment to put a supporting cast around its young core. The Sharks have the cap space to make Celebrini the highest-paid player in hockey and keep building around him. A team that was the league's punchline two years ago is now the one everyone else is watching.

Paying one player north of $20 million is a bet that he is worth building an era around. On the evidence of the last twelve months - 115 points, a 40-goal swing in the standings, the face of the sport at 20 - it is the easiest bet San Jose will ever make. The Sharks are not deciding whether Macklin Celebrini is a franchise player. They are deciding how many records they are willing to break to keep him.