Macklin Celebrini might be the best under-20 hockey player from North Vancouver in the NHL right now.
Now, that may sound so oddly specific that it's actually a backhanded compliment, like Flight of the Conchords singing about "The most beautiful girl (in the room)," but it's actually high praise because his competition is Connor Bedard.
Celebrini and Bedard were both picked first overall in back-to-back years and Celebrini is arguably having a better rookie season than Bedard did last year. It's far too early to declare one the winner in what isn't really a competition — at least, not until they face each other in the playoffs at some point in the future — but Celebrini has been fantastic for the San Jose Sharks.
With 11 goals and 23 points in 24 games, Celebrini is leading the Sharks in points per game, and he's been particularly good recently. He has three goals and eight points in his last six games, though the team around him is still not great — the Sharks lost five of those six games. Despite Celebrini's excellence, the Sharks are dead last in the Pacific Division with an 11-19-6 record.
On Monday night, Celebrini will play his first NHL game at Rogers Arena, though it's far from his first time in the arena. Celebrini grew up as a dyed-in-the-wool Canucks fan and his most recent trip to Rogers Arena was for Game 7 against the Edmonton Oilers, where he cheered on the Canucks just before he was drafted by the Sharks.
He'll be looking for the same result as that game as he faces his hometown team for the first time.
Celebrini will be facing a Canucks team that is reeling. They've lost three straight games and six of their last eight, though they took three of those losses to overtime to earn a single point.
The Canucks' record as a whole would look a lot better if they had managed to win a few more of their overtime games. The Canucks have taken ten games to overtime this season and won just three of them. Despite that, the Canucks' 16-10-7 record is still good enough to have them fourth in the Pacific Division and in the first wild card spot in the Western Conference by points percentage.
If the Canucks can sort out their game and whatever off-ice issues may or may not exist, they're still in a good position to make some noise in the back half of the season.
Vancouver Canucks projected lines
Nils Höglander is expected to get back into the lineup after he was a healthy scratch for two games. He practice on a top-six line alongside Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk on Sunday.
Hopefully, the two-game break was what Höglander needed to find his game again, as he had gone 21 games without a point and 26 games without a goal before he was scratched.
Linus Karlsson will come out of the lineup for Höglander, which makes a lot of sense. Karlsson simply did not look like an NHLer in his two games and the lack of footspeed was very apparent. As good as Karlsson has been in the AHL, he just hasn't been able to translate his game to the NHL level.
The Canucks' starting goaltender is expected to be Thatcher Demko, who has never lost to the San Jose Sharks in 11 starts. He has an 11-0-0 record against the Sharks with a .925 save percentage in his career.
San Jose Sharks projected lines
While Celebrini is the star, the Sharks are getting decent offensive contributions from a few other forwards. Former Canuck Tyler Toffoli leads the Sharks in goals with 13, while Mikael Granlund leads the team in points with 32 in 34 games. That trio gives the Sharks a pretty dangerous top line; shutting them down will be a priority for the Canucks.
Here are the projected lines for the Sharks, courtesy of beat reporter Curtis Pashelka:
Mikael Granlund - Macklin Celebrini - Tyler Toffoli
William Eklund - Alexander Wennberg - Will Smith
Nikolai Kovalenko - Luke Kunin - Fabian Zetterlund
Barclay Goodrow - Nico Sturm - Ty Dellandrea
Henry Thrun - Cody Ceci
Mario Ferraro - Timothy Liljegren
Shakir Mukhamadullin - Jan Rutta
Yaroslav Askarov
Alexandar Georgiev
The Sharks will be without the services of top defenceman Jake Walman, who has 25 points in 31 games this season. Walman is out day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
The Sharks' starting goaltender is expected to be Yaroslav Askarov. The 22-year-old netminder has been outstanding in his three starts this season, even as the team in front of him hasn't provided a lot of support. He has a .928 save percentage and earned the Sharks at least a point in all three games with a 1-0-2 record.
