Grading Sharks’ 5-Year Extension for Macklin Celebrini

There is a world where Celebrini never plays a game as the highest-paid player in the league, depending on what Jason Robertson , Cale Makar, and Quinn Hughes get paid on their new deals, but the important part for the Sharks is that they have locked up their franchise superstar on a long-term deal.

According to a few sources, Celebrini could’ve asked for the maximum annual contract, which is $20.8 million, but didn’t do that, and left the Sharks some breathing room. However, if he had asked, it doesn’t sound like there would’ve been much pushback.

Yes, Celebrini’s signing bonus bumps up what he actually gets paid for the first couple of seasons, but he still left a lot of money on the table for the Sharks over the duration of his new deal. They have a solid salary cap situation for the next couple of seasons, even with their need to get the extension for Will Smith completed, making this a solid deal for both sides.

Celebrini Takes Slight Discount, Sharks Keep Their Superstar

Some fans immediately questioned why Celebrini didn’t take a team-friendly deal, but there is an easy answer to that: he did take a team-friendly deal.

Anything below the maximum annual cap hit is a discount for a player of Celebrini’s caliber, and it left the Sharks even more room to make additions both this season and next season as they try to push into the playoff picture and push for a Stanley Cup.

The Sharks were able to lock up Collin Graf to a three-year deal worth just over $4 million annually, and have more than enough cap space to extend Will Smith. This is the best of both worlds for both the Sharks and Celebrini. The Sharks get some flexibility and can finally start to try and build a championship contender, while Celebrini gets paid what he deserves.

The only negative that comes from this extension is that it isn’t an eight-year deal. Realistically, the Sharks would’ve liked to have locked up Celebrini for longer than five years, but for now, this works, and his deal goes through what will likely be the Sharks’ contention window in as few as two seasons.

Extension Grade: A

As I said, the only negative about this contract is that it’s for five years, not eight. But, Celebrini took a discount and gave the Sharks some breathing room.

Even though $18.8 million annually is extremely high, the Sharks know that Celebrini is a generational player who could’ve asked for more and gotten it, but didn’t. The fact that they got him for less than $20.8 million is incredible and puts the Sharks in a good position, cap-wise, for a little while.

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