SAN JOSE – Maybe the San Jose Sharks — and their fans — have to be ready for a little bit of a letdown when it comes to the NHL draft lottery.
The Sharks have never drafted first overall in their 33-year history – not even when they finished the previous season in last place — and odds suggest they will not have the No. 1 pick this year, either.
The Sharks, who finished this past season at the bottom of the NHL standings with 47 points, have a 25.5% chance of winning the first overall pick after Tuesday’s draft lottery. If they win, they would likely select Macklin Celebrini, widely considered the best player available, at the NHL Draft in Las Vegas next month.
But there’s also an 18.8% chance the Sharks fall to the second overall pick and, per tankathon.com, a 55.7% chance they wind up with the third overall selection.
In that case, the Sharks will still wind up with a terrific young talent such as flashy Russian forward Ivan Demidov or future top pair defenseman Artyom Levshunov, a native of Belarus who just finished his freshman season at Michigan State.
It’s just that Celebrini, the Hobey Baker Award winner after a phenomenal first year at Boston University with 64 points in 38 games, is a cut above.
“If (the Sharks) end up winning this lottery … it would definitely speed up the rebuild process,” Sportsnet draft analyst Sam Cosentino told this new organization in March. “(Celebrini’s) a guy I think you can build around for a number of reasons. Character, effort, smarts, production ability, skill. He is the perfect marriage of will and skill for me. I think the world of him.
“He is head and shoulders the best player in this draft, and I think he’s going to be a centerpiece for a franchise for a long, long time.”
Longtime Sharks fans, though, are used to seeing their team get shut out of the No. 1 overall pick at the NHL Draft.
In May 1990, it was determined by the NHL Board of Governors that the Sharks, set to come into the league in 1991, would not be eligible for the No. 1 overall pick.
Per reports at the time, NHL President John Ziegler flat-out said the decision was made because the league did not want superstar-in-waiting Eric Lindros, the top available player in 1991, to go to an expansion team.
Instead, the Sharks were awarded the second overall selection and took forward Pat Falloon. Lindros was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques, who later traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers, although the New York Rangers also thought they had a deal to acquire the 6-foot-4 and 240-pound manchild.
The next year, the Sharks finished at the bottom of the 22-team NHL standings with a 17-58-5 record. But the league had already determined that one of the next two expansion teams, Ottawa or Tampa Bay, would get the No. 1 overall pick in 1992.
Tampa Bay won the coin toss and took defenseman Roman Hamrlik, who played 1,395 games over a 20-year NHL career. Ottawa took center Alexei Yashin, who had 781 points in 850 games over a 12-year career. San Jose drafted third overall and selected 6-5, 230-pound defenseman Mike Rathje, who had a 13-year career.
In those early years, the Sharks drafted second overall three times, including in 1997 when they took Patrick Marleau. They’ve had the third overall pick twice, with the second coming in 1998 when they drafted defenseman Brad Stuart.
Always a bridesmaid, never the bride.
But considering all of the ties between Celebrini, the Bay Area, and the Sharks, the lottery may be kismet.
Celebrini played for the Jr. Sharks youth hockey team four years ago, and his dad, Dr. Rick Celebrini, works for the Golden State Warriors. Mack just finished a spectacular freshman year at Boston University, where Sharks general manager Mike Grier starred for three seasons.
The bottom line is that Celebrini could help alter the trajectory of the Sharks franchise. Now, Grier and the rest of the Sharks organization need a little luck.
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“We’re excited,” Grier said last month of the draft. “Whether we get one or three, I think we’re going to be adding a really good hockey player, someone who should be hopefully a foundational piece to the core moving forward. So that’s exciting.”
The Sharks also own a top-10-protected first-round draft pick from Pittsburgh as part of the trade that sent Erik Karlsson to the Penguins last August. Pittsburgh, seeded 14th, has a 1.5% chance of winning the lottery.
If the Penguins do not move into fourth overall after next month’s lottery, the Sharks will take ownership of that selection, which will be 14th overall.
If they move up in the draft, the Penguins can keep that first-round draft pick and defer the pick they owe the Sharks to 2025. That pick would be unprotected.
