The Sharks are fully in the Olympic break, and while they may not be playing any games at this time, there have been some recent significant headlines announced regarding the Sharks directly and involving Sharks players at the Olympics. Let's dive in:
We begin with Sharks players at the Olympics, and there are very few hockey players performing better in Milan this year than Macklin Celebrini for Team Canada. Through the preliminary round, Celebrini has four goals, two assists, and six points, making him one of the top scorers in the tournament. He added the Olympics to the various stage debuts in which he has scored in, including the USHL, NCAA, World Juniors, World Championships, and the NHL. Count on Macklin to score in his eventual Stanley Cup Playoff debut as well if this trend continues, which I greatly believe that it will. On top of that, Celebrini made some history at this year's Olympics, scoring the most goals by a teenager in an Olympic tournament with NHL players in it and becoming the first NHL player to score a penalty-shot goal in the Olympics. In addition, Celebrini is tied with Evgeni Malkin for the most points by a teenager at an Olympic tournament with NHL players in it, and once the quarterfinals begin in two days, he will almost certainly stand alone with this record as well. His Team Canada squad has been dominating the Olympics so far and will not be slowing down anytime soon, and his Olympic teammates have had high praise for him throughout this tournament, most notably his linemates Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, and his idol Sidney Crosby. Macklin Celebrini has further proved that he is a generational talent in this year's Olympics at just 19 years old, and I love seeing and hearing him outperform nearly all other hockey players in the tournament.
As for the other players currently representing the Sharks in this year's Olympics, Philipp Kurashev and Pavol Regenda each have one assist for Team Switzerland and Team Slovakia respectively through the preliminary round.
Onto the latest Sharks transaction, Jeff Skinner has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract termination, and he officially becomes an unrestricted free agent. Skinner has six goals and seven assists for 13 points in 32 games for the Sharks this season. He has not played in a game for the Sharks since January 11 and has become expendable due to multiple factors. These include the Sharks roster being crowded, the emergence of players like Igor Chernyshov and Pavol Regenda, and the Kiefer Sherwood trade. Overall, the Jeff Skinner experiment did not work out in San Jose like the way he, the team, and many fans had hoped, but with the current state and direction of the Sharks, things will all be totally fine in the long run. Some contracts and experiments will be successful, some will not, and that’s the way things are in the sports world.
Stay tuned for an update post regarding Sharks players in the qualifying round, quarterfinals, and medal rounds of this year’s Winter Olympics coming later this week.
Sources: NBC Sports, NHL and Sjsharksnews via Instagram
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