SAN JOSE, Calif. — Everyone has a story about the pingpong table at the San Jose Sharks’ practice facility.
That includes the franchise players, role players and those who just got called up from the minors. Even the coaches and support staff members have stories about the piece of recreational equipment.
This includes second-year Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky. One day, while outside his office, he discovered Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith playing an unconventional style of pingpong.
“They’re playing pingpong with their shirts off, whacking each other with balls, having welts on them,” Warsofsky recalled. “That was kind of my first moment where I’m like, ‘Oh my God, these kids are 18 and 19 years old.’ But then you talk to them about hockey — and you talk to Mack and Will. They’re very mature kids for where they are at and being in the National Hockey League.
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“And so when you see those things like the pingpong balls, as funny as it is, how do you handle that as a coach? Because on one hand, you want players to be who they are. But on the other, you’re also going, ‘I’m sorry, what?'”
Moments like this are reminders that, for all the excitement, expectation and promise of a Sharks rebuild, Celebrini is still 19, and Smith is 20. These two could become the next NHL super-duo, and they’re having fun in the process.
That’s what makes them so endearing to everyone in the Sharks’ organization, because of what it represents: belief.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin. Those are all duos who won the Stanley Cup. Although their organizations built around them in order to win, the point remains that they were the cornerstones in the first place.
With Celebrini and Smith in place, are the Sharks the next organization to follow that path?
REBUILDS ARE LIKE machines, in that there must be specific parts in place for everything to work. But even with those parts, there must be cohesion. A rebuild that has the parts and the cohesion could eventually turn into a dynasty — while a rebuild lacking that continuity is likely not headed anywhere close.
This is why the Sharks have brought in veterans like Dmitry Orlov and Tyler Toffoli, because they have played for teams that have developed strong cultures around their young players. It’s why they hired Warsofsky: He knows how to develop players, and has the drive to develop himself as a head coach. This is why everyone around the organization is so cautiously optimistic.
None of this is lost on Celebrini and Smith. For as grateful as they are to be in the NHL at such a young age, they know that even if they improve on their last-place finish (52 points) in 2024-25, the Sharks will likely be in the draft lottery again.
“We have so much talent and guys that could make this roster and make it better in the future,” Celebrini said. “But at the same time, we can’t just wait around for guys to develop or guys to come in. I think we want to be greedy right now and we want to start changing things right now.”
EVERY DUO HAS an origin story. It’s just that San Jose isn’t where it first began for Celebrini and Smith. It actually started in Switzerland at the IIHF U18 World Championships in 2023. Celebrini represented Canada while Smith played for the United States. Smith led the tournament in points, helping the U.S. win the gold medal. A year later, they played against each other at the World Junior Championships; Smith led the tournament in points (again), as the U.S. won gold (again).
College was no different. They played in the same city but were on opposite sides of one of the most storied rivalries in the collegiate game; Celebrini skated for Boston University while Smith played at Boston College. They played against each other four times, with Smith and BC winning three of those meetings; the final one was the Hockey East Championship.
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Smith led the nation with 71 points as a freshman, while Celebrini was third with 64. However, Celebrini won the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top collegiate player. They each made it to the Frozen Four — where both lost to national champion Denver.
Drafting Smith with the fourth pick in 2023 was a significant addition for the Sharks. After winning the 2024 draft lottery and landing Celebrini, it led to a conversation about where the Sharks could be heading with their newfound duo.
“We never said a word to one another, and then, we came here for development camp,” Smith said. “And we really haven’t gone many days without each other. We talk about it sometimes that we’re [fighting for] the scoring title together. I’d check the box score and he’d light it up one night or I’d do the same and he’d get pissed off about it.”
Neither Celebrini nor Smith can pinpoint the exact moment that their friendship started. They both just said it happened naturally. They shared common interests like playing golf, playing cards on the team plane and — you guessed it — playing pingpong.
They also watch movies. Like, quite a few movies. On the day Smith spoke to ESPN, he said that he got Celebrini to watch “Horrible Bosses 2.” Just as he said that, Celebrini walked past him and yelled, “Rex! Rex!” in reference to the film’s antagonist, played by Chris Pine.
Another thing they have in common is that last season was the first time either of them played on a team that didn’t have a winning record or reach the postseason. They both admitted it was challenging to make that transition.
CELEBRINI SHOWED THAT he can handle the demands of being a top-line center last season, leading the Sharks with 63 points in 70 games and finishing second in the voting for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie. Smith finished tied for fourth on the team in points, with 45 in 74 games.
Facing the tough grind of a rebuild together allowed Celebrini and Smith to develop their own community, and it expanded beyond the duo. Veterans like Tyler Toffoli and teammates closer in age such as Ty Dellandrea and William Eklund are part of that community. So are all-time Sharks greats such as Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton; Smith lives with Marleau while Celebrini lives with Thornton.
But to believe their first seasons were defined by their point totals or any other metrics tells only part of their story.
What they learned through the losing was more than the need to improve as a team. They learned how to rely on each other, while showing others that they can be relied upon, too. Instead of keeping to themselves with their goofiness, they wanted others to be part of the fun.
This is how Celebrini and Smith are starting to make their mark on the Sharks.
Some of this has made its way to the public. The most prominent example being the sleepover that happened in March. Celebrini and Smith made a bet with Toffoli that if all three scored in the same game, Toffoli would sleep in Celebrini and Smith’s hotel room. They each scored in the Sharks’ 6-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres, which led to the Sharks posting a picture of Celebrini and Smith smiling in their beds while Toffoli was on a cot with his back turned to the camera.
“I think it’s kind of funny but surprising at the same time,” Toffoli said of how people reacted to the sleepover. “We’re in a smallerish market here in San Jose, but the way it kind of blew up — that’s just us, and it wasn’t like it was just us in that room. There were six or seven of us in that room, which is definitely pretty funny.”
Naturally, the Sharks made their home-opening giveaway this season a Celebrini and Smith bobblehead, with the two of them in their beds and an option of purchasing Toffoli in a separate bobblehead to complete the set.
“It’s definitely pretty ridiculous,” Toffoli said.
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Then there are the stories nobody knows about that speak to everything that embodies what it means to be Celebrini and Smith.
With the NHL hosting the 4 Nations Face-Off, it gave those players who weren’t playing a chance to get some rest. Celebrini and Smith were part of a group of Sharks players who organized a five-day golf trip to Arizona.
Everything was planned out, down to the courses they’d play, but there was one detail they overlooked: Celebrini and Smith were too young to rent an Airbnb and needed Dellandrea, who is 25, to book their accommodations.
“You forget how young they are sometimes,” Dellandrea said. “I think we forget that because they’re good people and as good hockey players as they are, they’re still that young.”
FOR ALL THAT they have done to foster a community, the Sharks have also created the sort of community around Celebrini and Smith that could have a long-term impact.
That includes the homegrown talents who are on this year’s roster like Eklund, Sam Dickinson and Michael Misa, along with prospects they’ve acquired in trades, such as Yaroslav Askarov and Shakir Mukhamadullin.
It also includes players such as Dellandrea, Toffoli and Dmitry Orlov, who were brought in from elsewhere and who know what it means to have an organic team culture.
“It’s important because your team is your second family and you spend a lot of time with them and you have to have trust and believe in them in the tough times,” said Orlov, who was part of the core the Washington Capitals built around Backstrom and Ovechkin to win a Stanley Cup in 2018. “But it’s also a lifestyle, too. We have a fun life, and it can be up and down. Everybody can handle that differently, but it’s why you have teammates, you have a family that can support you.”
Orlov and Toffoli said where that support becomes even more crucial for young players in today’s game is when it comes to social media. They shared how both the criticisms and the praise are easily accessible, to the point that it can become too much for one person to handle without the right support system in place.
Toffoli said part of building that support system is to consistently “do the right things,” with the hope that young players feel the traits they are seeing are ones worth replicating.
Although Dellandrea might not have Orlov and Toffoli’s experience in terms of games played, he does have an experience that lends itself toward helping the Sharks’ young players in a different way. After starting his career with the Dallas Stars, Dellandrea knows what it’s like to be one of the youngest players on the roster, because there is a difference.
“I think no matter who it is, young or old, you want good seeds in your locker room,” Dellandrea said. “I think [Sharks GM Mike Grier] and Warzo have done a good job in that there are good people to be around.”
Making sure that Celebrini, Smith and the rest of the Sharks’ homegrown core are surrounded by strong-minded individuals is an objective that Warsofsky takes personally and seriously.
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Part of the reason Grier hired Warsofsky was his ability to develop, teach and win at the AHL and ECHL levels. The principles that allowed Warsofsky to reach the NHL have also made him want to get better at his craft.
Coaching in the minors has given him the chance to work with young players. But Celebrini and Smith were the first teenagers he ever coached.
“That was a big adjustment,” Warsofsky said. “They’re very mature kids and they’re smart hockey players. But at the end of the day, they’re still 18 and 19 years old. You try to build a relationship, and it takes time. You see certain things that make them kids, and they’re both mature kids. But there’s a little side of them that lets you know they are teenagers.”
Warsofsky said seeing Celebrini and Smith whack each other with pingpong balls, while jarring, reminded him that it was important to let them grow up so they can develop the personalities that will someday be the voices that guide the franchise.
“I’m a big proponent of wanting personalities in our room,” Warsofsky said. “I want energy in the room. I think that’s important and that can be contagious. The more of that we have, the more swagger we’d be having with our hockey team. It translates to the ice.”
