Celebrini looking to join fellow North Van native Bedard at top of his draft class and TSN analyst Button wonders about them winding up together in Chicago as “Toews-Kane redux.”
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It’s easy to wonder if Macklin Celebrini wouldn’t be even more hyped if he wasn’t coming hot on the heels of Connor Bedard.
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Bedard, 18, was one of the most celebrated No. 1 selections ever when the Chicago Blackhawks took him with that top pick in last summer’s NHL Draft. His name had started to be attached to that year’s selection process when Hockey Canada granted him exceptional status in 2020 to play in the WHL a year early.
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Celebrini, 17, who like Bedard is a North Vancouver product and North Shore Winter Club alum, is the consensus choice to follow Bedard as No. 1 overall at this year’s NHL Draft in Las Vegas in June.
The Boston University Terriers freshman centre is the youngest player in the NCAA this season yet he was named a top-10 finalist earlier this week for the Hobey Baker Award, which goes to the best collegiate player in the country. He is only the fourth freshman since 2002-03 to score 30 goals in a campaign, and he’s just the fourth player in the 40-year history of Boston University’s Hockey East conference to win player of the year and rookie of the year in the same season.
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TSN analyst Craig Button agrees that Bedard’s draft year casts a massive shadow, but also tags Celebrini as a “franchise pillar like a Jonathan Toews.” Toews and Patrick Kane were centrepieces in a lengthy run of a success for the Blackhawks and, as it happens, Chicago will be in the lottery for the No. 1 choice this year. Only the San Jose Sharks (16-46-7) are behind Chicago (19-46-5) in the standings, trailing by four points with a game in hand.
Bedard, with 21 goals and 54 points in 56 games, is the Blackhawks’ leading scorer this year, despite being the youngest player in the NHL this season and being sidelined for several weeks with a broken jaw.
“Imagine him in Chicago with Bedard,” Button said of Celebrini. “Toews-Kane redux.”
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The No. 2 nationally ranked Terriers (25-8-2 overall, 18-4-2 Hockey East) are set to meet the No. 7 Maine Black Bears (23-10-2, 14-9-1) in a Hockey East semifinal this evening at TD Garden. The No. 1 Boston College Eagles (29-5-1, 20-31-1) and the No. 12 UMass Minutemen (20-12-3, 12-10-2) meet in the other semifinal.
The Hockey East final is Saturday at the TD Garden. The NCAA Frozen Four is April 11 to 13 at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
Celebrini joined former Terrier Jack Eichel (2014-15), Maine’s Paul Kariya (1992-93) and Boston College’s Brian Leetch (19867-87) in winning Hockey East’s player of the year and rookie of the year in the same season. He’s trying to join Eichel, Kariya and Michigan’s Adam Fantilli (2022-23) as freshmen to win the Hobey Baker.
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Other finalists for the Hobey Baker include his Boston University teammate Lane Hutson, a sophomore defenceman and 2022 Montreal Canadiens second rounder who was a finalist last year. There’s also Minnesota State Mavericks senior forward Sam Morton, who just signed a free-agent deal with the Calgary Flames.
The 6-foot, 190-pound Celebrini had 30 goals and 55 points through 33 games going into the weekend. He also had four goals and eight points in five games for Team Canada at the world juniors this season.
“He’s been prepared for this for a long time. I think he’s prepared his whole life. He works at it. He loves the game. He has a passion for it,” Boston University coach Jay Pandolfo said during a media call earlier this week. “That’s a big reason he’s as good as he is. He puts the work in. He wants to get better every single day and that’s what he does and he gets rewarded because of it.
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“It’s very impressive what he’s doing. It’s very hard to do.”
His Terrier teammates also include brother Aiden Celebrini, 19, who’s a freshman defenceman, as well as freshman defenceman Tom Willander, 19. Both are Vancouver Canucks draft picks from last summer. Willander was a first rounder, No. 11 overall. The elder Celebrini was a sixth rounder.
Button, his TSN cohort Bob McKenzie, both Jason Bukala and Sam Cosentino of Sportsnet and Elite Prospects are among the pundits that have Celebrini going No. 1 overall this summer.
Bedard was the first B.C. player to go No. 1 overall since Burnaby’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was playing with the WHL’s Red Deer Rebels at the time, was picked first by the Edmonton Oilers in 2011.
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