What should we realistically expect from the San Jose Sharks\u2019 young guns next season?<\/p>\n
To figure that out, let\u2019s look at some recent comps to project statistical expectations for Macklin Celebrini, Will Smith, William Eklund, Michael Misa, Sam Dickinson, and Yaroslav Askarov.<\/p>\n
What are best and worst-case scenarios for these hopeful San Jose Sharks franchise linchpins?<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini<\/p>\n
2024 No. 1 pick Celebrini enjoyed a 63-point rookie campaign as an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n
These three No. 1 picks went in three different directions after solid 18-year-old campaigns.<\/p>\n
2008 first-overall Steven Stamkos exploded, going from 23 goals and 46 points in 2008-09 to 51 goals and 95 points as a sophomore.<\/p>\n
2023 first-overall Connor Bedard has plateaued a little, going from 61 points in 68 games as a rookie to 67 points in a full schedule last year.<\/p>\n
2013 first-overall Nathan MacKinnon slumped, winning the 2013 Calder Trophy with 63 points, before following with 38, 52, and 53-point seasons.<\/p>\n
My prediction? Celebrini takes a leap for the San Jose Sharks, but perhaps not into superstardom just yet. Let\u2019s say he becomes a point-per-game player.<\/p>\n
No matter what happens to Celebrini next year, MacKinnon is a fantastic example of not giving up on talent too early. It took him a while longer than expected, but in his fifth season, he dropped 97 points and finished second in the Hart Trophy voting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What should we realistically expect from the San Jose Sharks\u2019 young guns next season? To figure that out,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[1322,21393,12961,293,30247,1328,62,67,132,68,5956,44273,44274],"class_list":{"0":"post-141037","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-featured","9":"tag-macklin-celebrini","10":"tag-michael-misa","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sam-dickinson","13":"tag-san-jose-sharks","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-will-smith","19":"tag-william-eklund","20":"tag-yaroslav-askarov"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115018684547204629","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}