As Celebrini-mania booms, Sharks president says, ‘We’re quickly becoming the Bay Area’s team’

SAN JOSE – Where would the San Jose Sharks be as an organization right now had they not won the NHL draft lottery in May 2024 and watched another team select a generational talent like Macklin Celebrini?

Sharks Sports & Entertainment president Jonathan Becher might shudder at the thought.

For starters, the Sharks’ improving playoff hopes this season might be much lower, and interest in the team locally and elsewhere likely wouldn’t be on the rise.

However, with Celebrini at the forefront, not only do the Sharks appear to have a realistic chance of qualifying for the postseason for the first time since 2019, but Becher said most everything on the business end – ticket sales, merchandising, and even company morale – has been surging.

All since the Sharks, with a 25.5% chance, won the draft lottery two years ago, selected Celebrini No. 1 overall and watched him not only become the face of the franchise, but also one of the NHL’s best players and now the team’s youngest-ever captain.

“He’s the spark plug that makes all this go,” Becher told Bay Area News Group on Friday, after Celebrini was officially introduced as the 11th full-time captain in Sharks history.

“One of the things we all love about hockey is it’s the ultimate team sport. … This is a team performance, but Macklin’s been the spark plug that caused this to happen.”

Last season, the Sharks announced sellouts at the 17,435-seat SAP Center for 22 of their 41 home games, up from 11 in 2023-24 and 15 in last year. With the Sharks in the thick of the playoff chase in March, they sold out six of seven home games.

Becher said all of the Sharks’ business metrics last season — merchandise, food and beverage, and season and individual ticket sales — rose 50% year over year from the season before. He also said the Sharks were among the top three NHL teams in season ticket renewal rates and new ticket sales, although the organization has stopped providing specific numbers.

In other words, interest is booming, causing Becher to boast, “I think we’re quickly becoming the Bay Area’s team.”

“No disrespect to any other sporting team in the Bay Area,” Becher said, “but we’re obviously significantly on the rise, and the inbound support from the other teams themselves and the non-traditional hockey fan is not anything that I’ve seen in my eight years here.”

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Of course, the Sharks had more room to grow than most other teams.

In 2024-25, when Celebrini was a rookie, the Sharks had the second-worst attendance in the NHL, averaging 14,219 tickets distributed per game. Not surprising, considering the Sharks finished with the NHL’s worst record for a second straight season that year.

Still, Becher said, the team’s 34-point improvement from 2024-25 to last season — largely in part to Celebrini’s record-setting 115-point season — had another side effect: improving worker morale.

“The same quiet confidence that (Celebrini) has on the team, more and more employees have as well,” Becher said. “The more confident you are in the job, the easier it is to get your job done. (Coach Ryan Warsofsky) likes to say (Celebrini) drags us into the fight, and I think it’s safe to say he’s sort of dragged the business team into fights in places that it wasn’t as comfortable going in before.”

Celebrini’s No. 71 jersey is by far and away the Sharks’ top seller.

Becher said before the season began, the team placed its biggest jersey order with the manufacturer in roughly a decade, all with Celebrini’s name and number, thinking they might not sell them all before the end of the season.

Instead, based on jersey sales before and during Thursday night’s preseason game against the Anaheim Ducks, Becher said those expectations have changed. Although the NHL does not release specific numbers, Becher said Celebrini’s jersey is “clearly” a top-10 seller, and “we’ve gone from middle of the pack to a top 10 club” in jersey sales and merchandise.

Had the Sharks not won the lottery in 2024, the Sharks’ first pick would have been second or third overall, and things could have gone any number of ways.

The Chicago Blackhawks had the second overall pick in 2024 and selected Artyom Levshunov, a promising defenseman with an inconsistent start to his professional career.

They also could have drafted Beckett Sennecke or Ivan Demidov, two wingers with star potential who were selected third and fifth overall, respectively, by Anaheim and Montreal. Center Cayden Lindstrom, taken fourth overall by Columbus, had back surgery in Nov. 2024 to remedy an injury that had bothered him for most of the 2023-24 season. He’s entering his sophomore season at Michigan State.

None of them have been like Celebrini, whose impact on the Sharks has gone far beyond the statistics.

“He gives the group a certain level of belief that things are possible,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “It’s fortunate to win the lottery and be able to select Mack. These types of players don’t come along too often, so when you have one, it changes the whole outlook of the organization.”