Macklin Celebrini announced himself last season as the next great Canadian hockey player. Though his team fell just short of the postseason, his individual efforts dragged the San Jose Sharks into the National Hockey League playoff race and kept them there until the final weeks of the season. The skill and dedication on display leave little doubt that Shark's general manager Mike Grier has made a good bet with the five year contract extension announced today.
Celebrini is in for a huge raise, as the average salary on his five year, $94 million deal works out to $18.8 million per season. Right now, he makes the rookie maximum that virtually all top picks are signed to, a $975,000 base with more than $3 million in performance bonuses. While Celebrini surely hit those targets last year, and is more than likely to do so again, his 2027-28 salary is going to be nearly six times greater.
What these signings say about the Oiler superstars
Salaries go up. That's not something that should surprise anyone, and it's a driving reason that Celebrini only signed a five year extension in spite of the fact that the eight year deals available under the current collective bargaining agreement will no longer be an option when the new CBA takes effect. Leo Carlsson was only the league's highest paid player for a few days before Celebrini's deal eclipsed his payday, and Celebrini will surely not be the league's highest paid in the back half of this deal.
That reality, and the fact that professional athletes have a relatively short earning window, really accentuates the financial sacrifice that Connor McDavid, and to a lesser degree Leon Draisaitl, made when signing their extensions with the Edmonton Oilers. With Draisaitl, it was a rich deal at the time it was signed, but also a well-earned raise. But McDavid could quite easily be making $20 million this season. His decision to take the same salary for a short term deal is the ultimate proof that he wants to win—in Edmonton.
The Oilers find themselves a team with extra cap space, and the ability to increase the competitiveness of their roster. If McDavid was paid what he's truly worth, they'd be right up against the cap, affecting their negotiating power with things like the Darnell Nurse trade, and putting them at risk of more offer sheets from competing teams looking to both improve and hamstring the Oilers at the same time. There's been a lot of change in Edmonton this summer, let's hope it's enough to pay back McDavid's generosity in the only way that matters. A Stanley Cup ring.
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