Kaplan’s playoff buzz: What’s up with Wyatt Johnston, Matt Rempe and Sergei Bobrovsky
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Emily Kaplan, ESPN
The Stanley Cup playoffs have been phenomenal, and we’re only halfway through. Breakout stars have emerged, controversies have broiled and the hockey itself has been as entertaining as ever.
After a month of traveling, here are some of the biggest stories I’ve seen developing behind the scenes.
FIRST OFF, BUSINESS is good. Four of the teams in the final eight — the New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers, in that order — ranked in the top 10 in league revenue for the 2022-23 season. Television ratings have hit record highs, up 9% from last year, including a 12% jump in the second round.
This season’s “hockey related revenue” figures haven’t been released by the NHL and NHL Players Association yet, but expect a big jump for Florida. The Panthers were a bottom-10 team but have experienced serious growth since their trip to the 2023 Stanley Cup Final. Winning, especially in the entertainment-rich South Florida market, helps immensely. The Panthers averaged 18,640 per game during the regular season, up 11.7% from 2022-23 — the best year-over-year percentage increase in the league. Florida also sold out every home game in the playoffs so far. It has had standing-room-only options, which it is exploring expanding.
This is great news for everyone, including the players, who have had 6% of their salaries withheld for escrow and should see a decent chunk returned. There will be a further uptick in revenues next year thanks to the move of the Arizona franchise to Utah.
DURING THE PANDEMIC, we often wondered about the lasting effects of that strange and uncertain time. For two young stars on the Stars — Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley — the disruption came during peak development years. Both players are strong examples of making the most of situations and coming out of them stronger.
For Johnston, the pandemic hit during his draft year. His Ontario Hockey League season was canceled. His only competitive hockey for the year was seven games at the U18 world championships. Living at home with his parents in the Toronto area, regulations were strict.
“Toronto had some city rinks that you could sometimes go to, but a lot of them were no sticks. So me and my buddy would show up at 6 a.m. and just skate for a while because that was the only ice we could get. No shinny was allowed,” Johnston said. “There was a park near my house, and my dad and a lot of the dads helped build a rink there. We made a little rink in my back driveway that I’d rollerblade on, and just work on stick skills.”
Now 21, he found a positive spin.
“I think it almost helped me,” he said. “Even though I wasn’t playing in games, I was working on my skills, which helped with stickhandling and I could work on specific things. Also, the first year in the O, I was small and skinny. So I had a lot of time to work on getting bigger and stronger — I’m not there yet, but I made strides. I went from 160 [pounds] to 175ish that year. We bought a barbell and a rack setup for the garage. It was dark and not a big area. It was pretty cold, I’d wear gloves and have a space heater. Sometimes my gym would be open, sometimes it would be closed. But I just found ways to work.”
Harley, meanwhile, spent an exorbitant amount of time living out of hotels before becoming an NHL regular. That included five different quarantines in one year, between the world junior bubble, Stanley Cup playoff bubble and training camps. Harley spent the 2021-22 season shuttling between the AHL and NHL, where he lived out of hotels, checking out when the team was on the road — only to check in to another hotel.
Harley has emerged as one of the Stars’ most trusted defensemen, trailing only Miro Heiskanen in ice time. His success on the ice is reflected in his personality: calm and composed. The Stars have been praised for their patience in letting Harley develop, working on his defensive game in the minors, but Harley deserves credit for his patience, too.
EVERYONE I’VE TALKED to — from players and coaches to league office employees — agreed that the officiating hasn’t been perfect. But it never is. The gripes run the gambit, especially if calls (or non-calls) affected their team. I’ve canvassed players across several teams, and their complaints are far more muted than the echo chamber of social media. Commissioner Gary Bettman and the league office have repeatedly reminded teams not to air grievances publicly. The NHL doesn’t believe it’s a productive approach. But everyone has a boiling point — see Bruins GM Don Sweeney holding a news conference in the middle of Round 2.
The common theme of most complaints: the need for transparency and consistency. One coach commented to our broadcast crew that his players were getting kicked out of faceoff circles by linesmen and never got explanations for why.
Goaltending interference challenges have been the most unpredictable, though most are blaming the Toronto-based situation room.
Sweeney’s big pitch? “We should not be asking the coach after the game what they feel about the officiating and what happens,” the Bruins GM said. “Those questions should either be directed at the supervisor of officials, supervisor of the series and/or the officials. You want full access and transparency? Then put the officials in front of the microphone to answer the question.”
I don’t get the sense there’s much appetite from the league’s perspective to make that change. ESPN rules analyst Dave Jackson doesn’t think there will ever be a time when the league puts referees in a news conference setting, but he thinks a good compromise would be a pool reporter. I just haven’t heard much momentum from the league to institute that.
SOMETHING NEW THIS season seems to be an embellishment problem. There have been eight embellishment calls through the first two rounds — the most in a single postseason in a decade. And remember, we’re only halfway through. There’s always an uptick in flopping in the playoffs, with players desperately looking for an edge, but this year feels particularly bad.
Several suggestions have floated around on how to curb it. Several people I talked to — players and coaches — echoed what Elliotte Friedman said on Sportsnet this weekend: Refs should penalize only the flop, not the initial offense. Another player on one of the current playoff teams suggested, “Or just double-minor the dive. Because it’s embarrassing what’s going on right now. We’re starting to look like soccer.”
I’VE COVERED MULTIPLE series the first two rounds, and nobody is practicing as hard as the Rangers. Typically teams opt for rest in the postseason, and maintenance days are extremely common. Not for New York, which also has had the benefit of finishing its first two rounds early, giving the team five full days off.
But when the Rangers are on the ice, they work. Practices have a midseason intensity, including battle drills. Even guys I know are banged up are going all out. Several players in exit meetings last year expressed a desire to be coached harder, and that’s the culture coach Peter Laviolette instilled when taking the job this year.
“We’ve preached on being competitive, and it’s not something you can turn off then turn on when you want to, you have to practice it,” defenseman Braden Schneider told me. “It works for us. It’s something that was hard to get used to at the start of the year, but now it’s second nature. I enjoy it because it keeps you in that mode of playing hard.”
MATT REMPE MIGHT have the biggest ratio of impact versus ice time in the league. We might not see the Rangers rookie in many road games, as last change allows opponents to maximize matchups against him. In the regular season, Rempe averaged 6:20 of ice time at home and just 4:20 on the road, and he has played in only two road games all playoffs. But at Madison Square Garden, the crowd erupts every time Rempe jumps over the boards, an undeniable energy swing for the Rangers.
When I talked to Rempe last week, he praised the communication he has received from Laviolette and his staff. The rookie knows his game is built on physicality and emotion, but he needs to stay in control to stay on the ice.
“It’s really tough,” Rempe said. “I get my instructions every game of what I’m supposed to do. Sometimes you’re mad, sometimes you want to let emotions take over, but you always have to put the team first. So it’s just learning the game inside the game. I’m still trying to figure it out to be honest with you, but I have a lot of people helping me.”
The hardest moment for Rempe so far in the playoffs was turning down a fight with Capitals bruiser Tom Wilson in Game 3 of the first round.
“I really wanted to do it. That was a guy I looked up to, and that goes against me — I don’t ever want to turn down a fight,” Rempe said. “But we were up in the series, we couldn’t give them anything to hold on to or potentially give them momentum. It was really hard to say no. I still think about it. But it’s all about the team.”
THE PANTHERS HAVE developed a reputation as a team that plays on the edge through physicality. Throughout the regular season, perhaps no team had more scuffles after whistles than the Panthers.
People around the organization say the narrative is overblown. They’ve honed in on discipline through the playoffs. Taped to the bottom of the Panthers bench are photos and names of the officials; that’s not uncommon, I’ve seen it for several teams. But under their names are the letters “STFU,” a reminder not to complain to the officials and focus on the Panthers’ own game.
“The stuff after the whistles, we can’t do that,” Aaron Ekblad told me ahead of Game 1 against the Rangers. “Discipline is so, so important to us. Obviously our penalty kill isn’t as good as it was this year, so when we find yourself in those situations where you want to punch a guy in the face, you have to hold back. Hopefully that swings the jump ball back in our favor when it comes to penalties.”
THE RENAISSANCE OF Sergei Bobrovsky has been incredible to watch. Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, signed a massive seven-year, $70 million deal in 2019, and the early returns were just OK. Now, in his age 35 season, he has been as important to the Panthers’ success as any player on the roster. People around the team credit the resurgence to a perfect combination of special athlete and special coaching. Bobrovsky’s work ethic is second to none.
The Panthers also have more resources for goaltending coaches than any other team. Their goaltending excellence department includes Roberto Luongo; his brother Leo Luongo; Francois Allaire, who worked with Patrick Roy back in the day; and Rob Tallas, who has survived four general managers and nine coaches over his tenure in Florida. That’s how good he is.
There are plenty of examples of goalies having career years under that system, with Bobrovsky’s backup Anthony Stolarz being the latest. I asked one of Tallas’ former goaltenders what makes him so great. He said: When he’s trying to teach you something, he doesn’t tell you, he creates drills where you discover the answer yourself.
THE STARS HAVE reached the Western Conference finals playing essentially five defensemen. Nils Lundkvist is averaging 4:28 a game, and he took just three shifts in the Game 6 double overtime win against Colorado. Coach Peter DeBoer explained the strategy: “I don’t think there is a rule that you have to play six D even minutes or anything like that. Just depends on the situation.”
When I asked further, DeBoer said that three of his defensemen — Heiskanen, Harley and Chris Tanev — are such good skaters, they don’t feel like the minutes they are playing are as hard as they are for some others. Jani Hakanpaa would draw into the lineup if healthy, but he hasn’t played since mid-March (lower body injury). Hakanpaa has begun skating on his own this week and just began traveling with the team.
SO MUCH IS made about which teams make splashes at the trade deadline. But which of those teams want or are able to keep those players — especially on expiring contracts — as part of their future plans?
Pat Maroon made it clear at Boston’s exit interviews that he wants to return. Coach Jim Montgomery repeatedly told us that Maroon’s intangibles as a leader could not be overstated. But the Bruins have a lot of offseason business to attend to, chiefly re-signing Jeremy Swayman to a big new contract and likely finding a trade home for fellow goaltender Linus Ullmark.
Boston will have a lot of cap space, and many people around the league have hinted the Bruins are targeting Elias Lindholm, for whom they weren’t willing to give up enough assets at the deadline, leading him to Vancouver. The Canucks will check in, but he will be costly and they have plenty of tough decisions.
In a year when players are blocking more shots than ever, nobody is doing it like Tanev, who leads the league with 56 in the postseason through 13 games. He has been a perfect fit in Dallas but will get a ton of love on the open market. He probably priced himself out from some suitors during this playoff run.
Speaking of seamless fits, Jake Guentzel was everything Carolina wanted in a reliable scorer and total playoff gamer. Both sides seem amenable to getting something done. The winger is super tough. He broke some ribs and tore his oblique in February while playing for the Penguins, and I’m told he wanted to play through it. Guentzel’s rationale: He had played through similar injuries before.
He pushed back when GM Kyle Dubas wanted to put him on long-term injured reserve. That’s what ultimately happened, though. In that time, the Penguins fell out of the playoff race, which led to Guentzel being traded. That time off, though, allowed Guentzel to rest up and be his best self for the Canes this spring.
Sports
Indies 2024 preview: Notre Dame’s CFP ceiling, Oregon State and Wazzu’s zombie conference and more
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff Writer
The independent ranks have swung and swayed in recent years. As recently as 2022, we had seven of them, but BYU joined the Big 12, and Liberty and New Mexico State gratefully joined Conference USA. With Army joining AAC in football this year, and UMass re-joining the MAC in 2024, we could soon be down to only two: forever-independent Notre Dame and UConn.
For now, however, we sort of have five: three indies and a Pac-2. As you probably remember, the Pac-12 was torn apart last year, with four schools departing for the Big Ten (Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington), four more leaving for the Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah) and, out of sheer desperation, two fleeing for the ACC (Cal, Stanford). Despite recent on-field success, Oregon State and Washington State were evidently too geographically remote to draw the Big 12’s attention. It’s unclear what they intend to do for a future conference home, but in 2024 they’re independents. They have scheduling arrangements with the Mountain West for football and the West Coast Conference for other sports, and their games will air on Fox and The CW this fall.
So we’ve got five independent or indie-like teams, all in either the Northwest, Northeast or Northern Indiana. Let’s preview them!
Every week through the summer, Bill Connelly will preview another FBS conference exclusively for ESPN+, ultimately including all 134 FBS teams. The previews will include 2023 breakdowns, 2024 previews and team-by-team capsules. Here are the MAC, Conference USA, AAC, MWC and Sun Belt previews.
Jump to a section:
2024 projections | Best games
CFP contenders | Who might be good
Hoping for 6-6
2023 recap
Notre Dame and its temporary new indie mates Oregon State and Wazzu had almost directly opposite seasons. The Beavers and Cougars defiantly charged out of the gates after the terrible realignment developments — OSU rose as high as 15th in SP+ during a 6-1 start (in which the only loss was to Wazzu), while Wazzu rose to 20th during a 4-0 run that featured wins over OSU and Wisconsin. But the Cougs lost seven of their final eight, a run that featured four one-score defeats and no bowl bid. OSU, meanwhile, held on a bit longer, reaching 8-2 before a narrow loss to Washington. But the Beavers finished the year losing by a combined 71-15 to Oregon and Notre Dame. Then, to add insult to injury, OSU head coach Jonathan Smith left for Michigan State.
The Irish, meanwhile, were up and down, jumping to fourth in SP+ after a 4-0 start then losing to Ohio State and playing poorly in a loss to Louisville. But they won five of their final six games, losing only at Clemson and overachieving against SP+ projections by an average of 15.8 points per game. They finished eighth in SP+, and were on the rise when the season ended.
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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
NORTH VANCOUVER, B.C. — At the foothills of the North Shore mountains is an unassuming mid-century modern home that blends in with the other houses in the neighborhood.
Inside this house is a large, round walnut dining table. There are six chairs around this table, one seat for each member of the Celebrini family, even when they are not all under the same roof.
Macklin Celebrini sits off in the distance while he listens to his mother, Robyn, along with his two brothers, Aiden and R.J., share stories.
So much has been said about why the San Jose Sharks are going to take the Boston University center with the No. 1 pick of the NHL draft. But as for the path Macklin took? Few know the story in the way that only his family can tell. What becomes evident is that family is the No. 1 priority for the NHL’s next No. 1 pick.
“Our parents have done such a good job of teaching us how to act the right way, how to carry ourselves the right way,” Macklin said. “That’s something me and my siblings have all learned. You’re never bigger than anyone because of success or anything. It all comes from how good of a person you are and that’s something they’ve preached to us. Just be a good person first.”
A good person is a father who takes a job with the Golden State Warriors to give his family an even better life. A good person is a mother who drives her children five hours round trip so her three sons can train at a rink while she hits tennis balls for three hours with her daughter. A good person is a 19-year-old older brother who was already drafted by an NHL team but has the humility to admit that his younger brother is the better player. A good person is the 11-year-old youngest child who proudly states he wants to be like his two older brothers because they are his role models.
“I definitely think I want to do what they’re doing,” R.J. said of his brothers. “They’re having lots of success and I want to follow their footsteps.”
The love that comes from having all of those good people in his life has remained the constant for an 18-year-old who has spent the last few years building the expectation he could be the NHL’s next superstar.
Having that love is what allowed Aiden and Macklin to go to Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, nearly 2,000 miles away from home in Faribault, Minnesota. That same love allowed them to handle what it meant to be apart when they played junior hockey in different leagues before reuniting at BU.
That strong support system played an instrumental role in Macklin being able to do things that haven’t been seen in many years. The 32 goals and 64 points he scored in 38 games led to winning the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top men’s collegiate player and were the second-most points in a single season by a 17-year-old.
These are among the numerous reasons why Macklin is expected to go first to the Sharks in the 2024 NHL draft (Friday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Even if it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s going to go first to the Sharks in what’s been referred to colloquially as the “Celebrini Draft,” Macklin won’t make any assumptions with what he describes as “the uncertainty of the draft.”
“Well, I’m not going to get ahead of myself for sure,” Macklin smiled. “I can’t really speak on something that hasn’t happened yet.”
The way Robyn explains it, Rick’s job was to pick their children’s names — with the understanding she had veto power.
There was a long list of names they considered, but none of them seemed to fit. Rick continued to look for options when he came across Macklin. They liked how it sounded along with the fact it could be shortened to “Mack” or “Mackie” by his friends. And as Robyn joked, she calls him by his full name, Macklin, whenever he’s in trouble.
Rick and Robyn were soccer players who wanted to raise “healthy and happy” children regardless of what sports they played. That gave Macklin — whom Robyn described as “curious and rambunctious and mischievous” — an outlet.
Macklin and his siblings did everything between gymnastics, swimming, soccer, tennis and hockey.
“We certainly didn’t imagine this with what’s happening right now,” Robyn said. “Nor did we ever limit their goals and their dreams. We knew it was possible but we would never tell our kids, ‘No, that’s never going to happen.’ But at the same time, we never set out for this to happen.”
Robyn had an inkling that Macklin was good at hockey. Aiden said his feelings about his brother were confirmed when he played at The Brick Hockey Invitational Tournament. First played in 1990, The Brick is an annual youth tournament that sees teams from across the continent compete against one another.
And yes, there are highlights of a 10-year-old Celebrini at The Brick. He was a defenseman at the time, but still found ways to score goals. Like when he got the puck at center ice, beat his defender and scored on a wrist shot. There was another where he exited the defensive zone, sped through the neutral zone and passed the puck once he was in the offensive zone, only to be in position to score a goal seconds later.
What he did at The Brick had Aiden thinking about Macklin’s path.
“He obviously liked scoring goals more,” Aiden said, smiling. “He wasn’t the top scorer but there was a level of exceptional about him that I just knew. I saw him compared to the other kids and I’m biased, but I had faith he’d come out on top. There was a compete [level] in him at such a young age and that’s what really separated him. He was a winner. That’s his biggest quality now. He’ll do whatever it takes to win.”
Underneath Macklin’s approachably friendly demeanor lies a drive to win at all costs. There are stories about how Macklin gets angry when he loses at anything.
Board games, chess, pickleball — it doesn’t matter.
“We’ve had our fair share of fistfights over you name it,” Aiden said with his mother cackling in the background. “Whether it’s pickup basketball, soccer, mini-sticks, chess. There’s always — something’s about to blow. It’s gotten more civil nowadays. Maybe it’s because we’ve both matured a little bit. But there’s no escaping the competitiveness in this family in general.
“When I say everyone in this family hates to lose, I mean hates. There have been chess matches where the competitors didn’t talk to each other for a while. I can’t really name two people because we’re all guilty of it.”
R.J., however, provided more insight into how things really work. He said Aiden is the best chess player in the family and that he usually wins.
It’s what made R.J.’s first victory over his brother one he’ll always remember.
“That was the best day of my life!” R.J. said.
Both Rick and Robyn grew up in Vancouver, and that’s where they met. All their family and friends are there. They weren’t actively looking to leave. But when Rick was offered the opportunity to be the Warriors’ director of sports medicine and performance, it was clear that taking the job would be the best thing for their family.
Moving away meant making adjustments, particularly when it came to hockey. Vancouver has an affinity for the sport at practically every level. Its youth have gone on to play in the NHL and the PWHL. The city’s love-hate relationship with the Canucks (that’s currently love) is a year-round obsession. This is all to say that there’s seemingly endless opportunities for youth hockey players.
The Bay Area does have hockey infrastructure. The Sharks have been around since 1991 and have built a passionate following. But it’s not the same as living in a hockey-crazed locale such as Vancouver, where the game is much more accessible.
“Our kids went to regular school when we lived [in Vancouver] and when we moved, we realized getting on the ice or getting extra ice time down there was very difficult,” Robyn said. “So, they did online school. We just decided to keep them home and do online school and access more of the on-ice opportunities and development opportunities during the day when all the other kids were at school, because that was the only way we were going to be able to try to maintain the hours they did. It was a big sacrifice.”
The Celebrinis moved to the Bay Area in August 2019. Macklin was thriving while playing Triple-A hockey for the San Jose Jr. Sharks U14 team, scoring 49 goals and 94 points in 54 games.
In March 2020, that situation was upended by the pandemic.
With most facilities shuttered, the Celebrinis were looking for a rink where Aiden, Macklin and R.J. could continue their on-ice training while living in San Jose. They eventually found a small rink that was open just outside of Sacramento.
Five days a week for several weeks, Robyn and her children piled into their car at 6 a.m. and made what was a five-hour round-trip trek. Aiden, Macklin, R.J. along with their sister, Charlie, would do their schoolwork on those car rides before arriving at their destination.
That’s when Aiden, Macklin and R.J. all did what Robyn described as “self-directed skating and skill development” during what amounted to be 90-minute individual sessions. After Robyn dropped off her sons at the rink, she and her daughter, Charlie, would find a tennis court where they would practice and hit balls for at least three hours before returning to the rink to pick up the boys and head back to San Jose.
Making those trips allowed Macklin to continue his development. It led to both him and Aiden spending two seasons playing at Shattuck-St. Mary’s, the same program that developed future NHL stars such as Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Zach Parise and Nathan MacKinnon. Macklin scored 51 goals and 141 points in his first season for the 14U team, and he scored 50 goals and 117 points in 52 games the next season playing for the 18U team.
“Like everyone, you’re trying to find ice and where to train, because you didn’t want to lose any ground. But looking back, it is crazy,” Macklin said. “It’s the thing that we did. That’s one of the sacrifices my parents made for us. That’s seven hours of their day that they’re spending kind of catering to us and making sure we have everything we need. Looking back, it was crazy that we did that but at the time, it was our only choice.”
3:19
Top NHL prospect Macklin Celebrini’s connection to the Golden State Warriors
Emily Kaplan profiles NHL prospect Macklin Celebrini and his relationship with the Golden State Warriors.
Most Canadian kids with NHL aspirations traditionally use the Major Junior route as the primary development path to reach the game’s highest level. Major Junior leagues such as the Ontario Hockey League, the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League and the Western Hockey League have produced superstars such as Crosby, MacKinnon and Connor McDavid.
Moving to the United States means the Celebrinis were presented with another option beyond the WHL. College hockey has fostered the growth of elite Canadian players such as Toews but a recent surge has seen NCAA programs gain greater visibility for their roles in developing Cale Makar, Owen Power and Adam Fantilli.
The Celebrini’s chose the college route. That meant Aiden played juniors for the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League while Macklin played for the Chicago Steel in the USHL.
Aiden said that year apart was hard because their family is so close. But that time allowed him to find out more about himself as a person, which was also the case with Macklin.
Aiden and Macklin could have gone to different universities. But what made BU work is that they felt the Terriers had the coaching staff and facilities that could help them develop. There was also the chance that they could play together for at least one season, with the reality that they might never get another opportunity to be teammates.
“From each of us starting our individual process … we’ve experienced being in charge of our own journey but also being part of the other’s,” Aiden said. “Having that year where we played junior hockey apart, being able to go to school together was such an amazing thing for both of us. But at the same time, we wanted to make it for the right reasons. Neither of us wanted to make that decision for the other one, but wanted to find a place that was right for us.”
Going to BU was a chance for Macklin to refine the skills that not only made him the most dominant player on the ice, but could make him the sort of player who could be in the NHL at age 18. Aiden, a sixth-round pick by the Canucks in 2023, found BU appealing because it allowed him a slightly longer development runway.
That’s what made their year together even more rewarding. They were able to receive the individual development they needed. They were able to get that development while playing for a team that finished 28-10-2 and reached the Frozen Four, where they lost to the eventual national champion, Denver, in overtime.
But they were also able to spend time together away from hockey because they knew there was a chance everything could change if Macklin decided to leave BU after one season.
Playing at BU also allowed Aiden the opportunity to go through the time-honored challenge of seeing how their teammates could defend Macklin in practice.
“I’ve told him that as a defenseman, it’s difficult to defend him because he has that need, that want to score,” Aiden said. “At the same time, throughout the years I feel like I have learned to push his buttons and crack the code that is defending him. But it’s definitely not easy and it still isn’t easy. There’d be days I’d get the better of him and other days it feels like he’s a ghost.”
For a family as competitive as the Celebrinis, what allows Aiden to be comfortable admitting that defending his younger brother is a problem?
“Seeing him on the path he’s on, it’s not always easy being the brother,” Aiden said with Macklin just a few feet away. “You have your own challenges being compared to that, but at the end of the day, my love for him transcends all that. I’m so proud of him. I’m his biggest fan above all else. … I don’t think we see it as me versus him. We’re just so happy for each other’s successes. We’re there for our own journeys, but we’re there to help each other too.”
1:26
Meet the top prospects of the 2024 NHL draft
Meet the top prospects ahead of the 2024 NHL draft, including Macklin Celebrini, Artyom Levshunov, Cayden Lindstrom and Zeev Buium.
After the Sharks won the NHL draft lottery, Robyn had a spark of inspiration. Her thought was that the casita that became Aiden and Macklin’s room could use some updates, now that it looked like her second-oldest child would be moving closer to his family.
That’s when Rick broke the news to his wife: Macklin is not going to be living with his parents while he’s playing in the NHL. Especially when his parents live in Livermore — a 40-minute drive with no traffic in a metro area where traffic is nearly ever present.
“I mean, it’s close but not that close for a daily commute,” Macklin said. “If this was a couple years ago when we rented a house 10 minutes from the practice facility, then I’d probably live at home. It’s just far enough that I don’t think that would happen.”
Speaking of San Jose, the fact that his family lives there and he spent time with the Jr. Sharks has led to a discussion about Macklin being the closest thing to a hometown talent the franchise has ever had.
Macklin is aware of those conversations. He said while he loved living in the Bay Area, he was born and raised in Vancouver. That’s the place he considers his hometown while recognizing that the Bay Area has been a home for him and his family.
But having Macklin in the Bay Area where he could come visit or they could visit him while watching his games is more than what Rick and Robyn would have expected. Mainly because when a high-achieving couple like Rick and Robyn raise high-achieving children, it means nobody is in one place for too long.
As the Celebrinis spoke in Vancouver about Macklin’s path, they were missing Rick and Charlie. Rick was back in the Bay Area while Charlie was representing Canada at a tennis tournament in Mexico. Although Aiden and Macklin can spend time together, Robyn and R.J. have to travel to a youth hockey tournament in Montreal.
Being on the move between different countries — while operating in different time zones — is how the Celebrinis have come to navigate the world.
“I appreciate them more because I don’t get to see them a lot,” R.J. said. “It’s definitely awesome to have them here this summer. I just want to spend as much time with them as I can before they both go back to Boston or Mack to San Jose.”
Robyn jokes that everyone having such a hectic schedule is why they’ve not had many, if any, family vacations over the past five years. That’s another reason why the NHL draft holds such a special meaning.
It’s a celebration. But also a chance for the six of them to be together along with their grandparents, aunts and uncles in Las Vegas.
Thinking about what that moment will be like for his family causes Macklin to review the things his family did to get him there. He brings up how his dad moved to the Bay Area a year early and lived by himself while his mom raised him and his siblings by herself in Vancouver.
“It’s my dad leaving work early to take one of us to practice so my mom could take one of us to tennis or whatever,” Macklin said. “Their lives have been around helping us succeed and doing everything they can to help us achieve our goals. I don’t think any of us could say enough to let them know how much we appreciate them.”
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Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
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