Projected No. 1 draft pick Celebrini reaffirms love for Canucks

Sportsnet

Barring any sort of true shocker, Macklin Celebrini won’t be playing for the Vancouver Canucks anytime soon.

A North Vancouver native who spent this past season starring for the Boston University Terriers, Celebrini is soon expected to be the first overall pick in the NHL Draft later this month, which belongs to the San Jose Sharks.

But for at least one last time this past spring, Celebrini was caught by ESPN’s cameras cheering on the Canucks during their final game of the season: a crushing Game 7 defeat on home ice to the Edmonton Oilers.

In the third period of that game with Vancouver looking to rally late in the contest, Celebrini was caught chanting along “Go Canucks Go” with the rest of the Rogers Arena crowd.

Macklin Celebrini is a Canucks diehard pic.twitter.com/lfbJuVnmGC

— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) May 21, 2024

During an intermission segment of Monday night’s Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, Celebrini explained his reasoning for backing Vancouver.

“I took my opportunity during that game to get one last Canucks chant going,” he told the Sportsnet panel.

Asked by former Canucks defender Kevin Bieksa if he’d received any “crap” for still showing his fan side, Celebrini said both friends and teams ribbed him a little for the clip.

“Yeah, my buddies, I also heard [from teams] about it at the [NHL Draft] combine a little bit,” he added.

"I took my opportunity during that game to get one last Canucks chant going." 🐳

Macklin Celebrini on not being able to cheer for the Canucks anymore once he's drafted. pic.twitter.com/ekNqW8CBmb

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 11, 2024

“This is as big as it gets,” Celebrini said, via NHL.com’s Nicholas J. Cotsonika. “Watching the best players in the world prepare for this type of game, I feel like it’s just a learning experience, just kind of seeing how they approach it. I mean, you can obviously tell that they’re pretty laid back and they’ve done it before.”

However, there is in fact a Celebrini in the organization: Macklin’s older brother, Aiden, was selected by the Canucks in the sixth round of last year’s draft.

And while the younger Celebrini won’t get to play for his actual hometown team, he won’t exactly be in unfamiliar territory, either.

His father, Rick, has worked for many years as part of the training staff for the Golden State Warriors, with the family’s California residence being “40 minutes” from the SAP Center, where the Sharks play.

Maybe one day the Canucks will be able to lure the entire Celebrini family home in free agency, but we won’t hold our breath just yet.

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