The question hanging over the San Jose Sharks‘ offseason now has a published ceiling. Sportsnet’s Justin Arenburg listed Macklin Celebrini as the NHL’s leading candidate to seek the maximum allowable contract on his next deal, in a piece examining five players who could push for the league’s cap on individual salaries. It is the latest data point in an extension watch that has run all month, arriving days after the 20-year-old center was named the cover athlete for EA Sports NHL 27.
The math is specific. League rules cap any player’s average annual value at 20 percent of the salary cap in effect when he signs. An extension signed during the 2026-27 season would max out at $20.8 million; if Celebrini waits until July 1, 2027, when the cap rises to $113.5 million, the ceiling climbs to $22.7 million. Either figure would clear the $18 million benchmark Leo Carlsson set with the offer sheet Anaheim matched earlier this month — a deal Arenburg treats as the new reference for elite young centers, and one Celebrini’s résumé arguably exceeds. There is also a structural deadline: the incoming collective bargaining agreement takes effect September 16 and caps contract length at seven years, making this window one of the last chances for San Jose to sign an eight-year deal.
What the projection leaves out is the player’s stated position. Asked by ESPN this month about the team-friendly deals stars like Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon accepted, Celebrini said he would consider taking less than his maximum: “You want to put your team in the best spot possible where you give a team the ability to make moves necessary to win.” Elliotte Friedman, on his end-of-season 32 Thoughts podcast, said he expects San Jose to sign Celebrini before next July 1 precisely to avoid a Carlsson-style offer sheet, and sketched the front office’s likely opening: acknowledge he deserves the max, then ask whether there is a structure that leaves flexibility around him.
So the outline of the negotiation is public before it has formally begun. The number that matters is not the ceiling but the gap between it and whatever discount Celebrini is actually willing to take — that gap is the Sharks’ future supporting cast. Every week without a signed extension moves the leverage toward the maximum.
For fantasy purposes, none of this touches Celebrini’s standing as arguably the first pick in dynasty formats. An extension signed this year would remove the only long-range uncertainty attached to him, and keeper-league managers can treat the contract watch as noise: his deployment, line and power-play role in San Jose are fixed regardless of the AAV.
