It’s all but guaranteed at this point that Boston University center Macklin Celebrini will be the first overall pick in the 2024 Draft. He has the potential to be a franchise altering superstar with game breaking offensive skills to go with a really complete defensive skill set. While Celebrini may not be at the Connor Bedard-level of talent, he is certainly an above average talent when compared to other first overall picks.
Today, I am going to be ranking the best teams for Celebrini to join while keeping his best interest in mind. That means the top team must have a spot in the depth chart perfect for him, a chance to win important games in the near future (or a clear path toward success), quality teammates/prospects to play with, have a sensible rebuilding timeline that he fits into, among a few other factors. There isn’t a team in the NHL that wouldn’t absolutely love to add him, but some teams would be much better destinations for him than others.
Related: 2024 NHL Mock Draft 1.0
I will be ranking the NHL’s 11 worst teams from the 2023-24 seasons, as they are the only ones with a chance at landing the first overall selection. The NHL’s Draft Lottery rules dictate that a team can only jump up a maximum of 10 spots meaning just 11 teams have any hopes of winning the right to draft Celebrini. Let me be very clear, there are no bad options here, as every team in the bottom 11 this season has the potential for greatness with the addition of Celebrini.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at which NHL teams would make for the very best landing spots for Celebrini.
11. Calgary Flames – 5%
The Calgary Flames have some good young wingers like Jakob Pelletier, Connor Zary and Matt Coronato, but nobody down the middle or on the backend who could change the team’s fortunes in the near future. Celebrini would give them that, but this team doesn’t look likely to run a successful rebuild in the modern-era where bottoming-out is the standard way of finding franchise cornerstones.
Could the Flames be a decent playoff team within the next three years? Sure. Will they be good enough to hold onto that level of success once the play of guys like Jacob Markstrom and Jonathan Huberdeau start to decline? Probably not. That’s a weird spot to be as a potential “face-of-the-league” level player which is why the Flames are at the bottom of this list.
10. Seattle Kraken – 6%
After earning a shocking playoff berth last season, the Kraken have come back down to earth this year. They have some really solid players that Celebrini could play alongside, however, they don’t have a ton of high-end young talent aside from Matty Beniers and Shane Wright. Typically, expansion teams have multiple years drafting in the top-5 picks or so, allowing them to snag some future stars. While Beniers and Wright look like excellent NHLers, neither exactly scream “superstar”.
Eduard Sale and Jani Nyman look like they could be future top-six guys in the NHL if their development continues to go well, and Celebrini would have a clear path to being the first line center in time so this wouldn’t be a bad spot for him by any means. I just think that most of the other teams in the draft lottery will have better young cores to build around him to maximize their success during his career.
9. Montreal Canadiens – 8.5%
The Montreal Canadiens are up next and this is where things get difficult. You could argue with me that the Habs should be significantly higher on this list and I wouldn’t disagree too strongly. There are so many teams with a ton of young talent that would make for a great landing spot for Celebrini, but I don’t think the Canadiens beat the rest of these teams in that category.
Joshua Roy, Juraj Slafkovsky, Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook represent a really solid group of wingers that Celebrini could play alongside, and he could easily play behind Nick Suzuki for a few years until he’s ready to take over the first line role. This lottery win would give Montreal two really strong two-way centers and would likely solidify their forward group. Playing for Martin St. Louis wouldn’t hurt either.
8. Ottawa Senators – 6.5%
The Ottawa Senators have quite a few talented young centers already, but I don’t think they’d mind adding Celebrini to that group. Besides, a Stutzle/Celebrini combo as your top-six centers would likely create one of the league’s most dynamic center duos.
There are a handful of really strong wingers for Celebrini to play alongside in Ottawa like Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, and Claude Giroux as well. The Senators appeared to be a team on the rise last offseason, but that didn’t really come to pass in the 2023-24 season, and their future is a little bit murky. I think Celebrini could be enough to elevate them back into the playoff conversation in the near future though so the Senators land in the middle of the pack for me.
7. Chicago Blackhawks – 13.5%
The collective groan we would hear from around the NHL if the Chicago Blackhawks won another draft lottery would be legendary. It would be absolutely wild to have the team go from Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane to Celebrini and Bedard in just a few short years. There’s a ton of other young talent coming up in Chicago with Lukas Reichel, Frank Nazar, Oliver Moore, and Kevin Korchinski, to name just a few.
If the Blackhawks drafted Celebrini, I doubt he’d return to the NCAA since they’ll probably give him a similar treatment to Bedard in his rookie year where the only real goal is to get used to the NHL game and score some points. They’d be able to give him big minutes as soon as next season, and have a path out of their rebuild given the fact that they would have back-to-back first overall picks.
6. Utah NHL Team – 7.5%
One of the reasons this relocation hurts so bad is that the talent level of this group is so high that they were just a few moves away from being competitive in the Central Division. Their offensive game has come a long way in the last few years and it has really felt like they were finally on the right track. Regardless, this would be an excellent group for Celebrini to join next season, with a massive group of talented forwards for him to play with, and the new ownership group seems prepared to make some big moves this offseason.
Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, and Logan Cooley are just the tip of the iceberg, with many more players on the way. There’s a decent amount of insulation at center so Celebrini wouldn’t be forced into a 1C role right away, but there’s also no clear top-line center so he won’t have much competition for that spot when he’s ready. Celebrini would also become the first draft pick in team history, a label that brings a level of folk-hero status that will forever endear him to local fans.
5. Columbus Blue Jackets – 9.5%
Celebrini’s numbers through his time in the USHL and NCAA have often been compared to Adam Fantilli’s, since both of them took the same route through the United States as Canadian teens. So why not let them team up as the first dynamic center duo in Blue Jackets history? There’s a ton of space at center in Columbus for Celebrini, though Fantilli and Boone Jenner could readily handle the top-six center minutes during his rookie season adjustments.
Columbus’ winger group has a couple talented question marks in Patrik Laine and Johnny Gaudreau, but also has some wonderful young wingers like Gavin Brindley, Kirill Marchenko, and Kent Johnson. The Blue Jackets have a devoted fan base that deserves a good team, and I think a duo of Fantilli and Celebrini could take this team farther than we’ve ever seen them.
4. Anaheim Ducks – 11.5%
The Anaheim Ducks have done an excellent job of gathering talent in the past few years, and adding Celebrini to their group should all but solidify the core group of the next competitive Ducks team. This would also allow them to either move Trevor Zegras to the wing, or trade him altogether (an option they’ve apparently weighed already). The Ducks could play Celebrini with any number of talented forwards, from Cutter Gauthier and Mason McTavish to Leo Carlsson and Zegras.
It is very possible that the Ducks could take a significant step forward next season after another year of growth from young guys like Olen Zellweger, and the addition of Celebrini down the middle would have a huge effect as well. It also doesn’t hurt that Celebrini would be relatively close to his family in San Francisco (6ish hour drive).
3. San Jose Sharks – 25.5%
The San Jose Sharks present a really solid on-ice opportunity for Celebrini, but the off-ice situation is why they rank so highly here. The Sharks’s SAP Center arena is just an hour drive from the home of the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco (Chase Center), meaning it’s conceivable Celebrini could spend at least the year living with his parents. That’s an underappreciated win for a player who will turn 18 just weeks before he is drafted.
Related: 2024 NHL Draft – Horn’s Top 100 for April
When it comes to the hockey side of things, the Sharks have begun to build a solid young group, but the losing atmosphere they’ve got going on isn’t likely to be the most positive place for him to spend next season. Perhaps he could return to Boston University (he has mentioned the possibility) and come back to play with Will Smith, William Eklund, Quentin Musty and co. He is a good enough player to be a centerpiece for the Sharks’ rebuild and I think the fit would be excellent all-around.
2. Buffalo Sabres – 3%
It’s highly unlikely that Celebrini lands in Buffalo, but the possibility remains so I couldn’t help but rank them very high here. This Sabres team has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to young talent, with guys like Dylan Cozens and Zach Benson already contributing in the NHL and others like Matthew Savoie and Jiri Kulich not far behind. There’s a very clear path for Celebrini to be a top-six center in Buffalo with elite linemates, and the arrival of Devon Levi as a full-time NHL goalie could see this team skyrocket in the standings next season.
The only reason the Sabres aren’t the top team on this list is that the forward group in Buffalo is already so crowded. Alongside the four guys mentioned above, the Sabres have Alex Tuch, Jeff Skinner, Tage Thompson, Jack Quinn, and JJ Peterka (not to mention several excellent prospects). Celebrini would quickly be one of the better forwards on this team, but his role and minutes will be far from guaranteed for the first year or two of his career.
1. New Jersey Devils – 3.5%
It feels kind of wrong not putting the Sharks first here but I couldn’t resist the idea of Celebrini joining the New Jersey Devils. Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier (both recent 1st overall picks) currently form Jersey’s dynamic center duo, but I’m sure the team would love to move Hughes to the wing and slot Celebrini down the middle. This would alleviate some of the defensive responsibility from Jack, further freeing him up to become one of the league’s top offensive talents.
There’s also a strong group of talent on the wings in New Jersey, with both Timo Meier and Jesper Bratt signed long-term and young guys like Alex Holtz and Dawson Mercer on the rise, not to mention Luke Hughes and Simon Nemec on the backend. This Devils team is already a really strong group from top to bottom, and adding someone with the two-way potential of Celebrini would help to solidify the defensive prowess of their forward corps.
A combination of injuries, rookie growing pains, and horrible goaltending spelled their doom this season, where they missed the playoffs despite their breakout 112 point season in 2022-23. Drafting Celebrini would let them focus every remaining cap dollar and asset to find a long-term solution in net, which could represent one of the final pieces in making this team a serious Stanley Cup contender.
