For Macklin Celebrini, Chicago was where the hockey world learned his name. The San Jose Sharks selected him in June 2024, but the path to that moment ran through the Chicago Steel and a 2022-23 season that turned a 16-year-old from a promising prospect into the clear front-runner for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft.
Celebrini scored 46 goals and finished with 86 points in 50 games for the Steel, the most ever by a 16-year-old in the USHL. He also won both the USHL Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year awards, production that made the league stop looking at him as a future talent and start treating him as one already arriving.
The numbers mattered because they came in a season that was not fully smooth. Celebrini dealt with an early-season bum shoulder, then had surgery after the year, but the injury never erased what he had built on the ice. His pace, touch and finish over 50 games gave scouts a clean answer to the biggest question in junior hockey: who was the next player most likely to change the order of an NHL draft?
Chicago was never an accident. Then-Chicago Steel general manager and head coach Mike Garman recruited Celebrini to the team, and Celebrini spent three days in Chicago before deciding to play for the Steel. He had already decided to play in the NCAA the next season, his draft-eligible year, which meant he could not play for the Vancouver Giants. The Steel became the place where he could still chase development while also staying on the path he had chosen.
Celebrini said he had “so many great memories” with the Steel and that he “loved my time here.” He pointed to the structure around the team and said the development set-up was built to get players to the next level and help them achieve their dreams of playing in the NHL. He also said the way the program organized its days was “amazing,” a reminder that his rise was not only about scoring but about finding a setting that matched his pace.
Adam Fantilli helped get Celebrini to the Steel, a connection that mattered inside a league built as much on trust as talent. Celebrini later described Garman as “just so awesome,” and Garman said Celebrini could have gone anywhere he wanted and that the team was grateful to work with him. By the time Celebrini left Chicago, he had done more than dominate the USHL. He had made his case for the top of the draft and given the Steel a season that will define how he is remembered there.
Now that he is with San Jose, the legacy of that year sits in one place: Chicago, where a 16-year-old spent 50 games changing what people thought was possible.
