Can Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith be the NHL's next great Stanley Cup-winning duo?

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Everyone has a communicative astir the ping-pong array astatine the San Jose Sharks' signifier facility.

That includes the franchise players, relation players and those who conscionable got called up from the minors. Even the caput coaches, adjunct coaches and enactment unit members person stories astir the portion of recreational equipment.

This includes second-year Sharks manager Ryan Warsofsky. One day, portion extracurricular his office, helium discovered Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith playing an unconventional benignant of ping-pong.

"They're playing ping-pong with their shirts off, whacking each different with balls, having welts connected them," Warsofsky recalled. "That was benignant of my archetypal infinitesimal wherever I'm like, 'Oh my God, these kids are 18 and 19 years old.' But past you speech to them astir hockey -- and you speech to Mack and Will. They're precise mature kids for wherever they are astatine and being successful the National Hockey League.

"And truthful erstwhile you spot those things similar the ping-pong balls, arsenic comic arsenic it is, however bash you grip that arsenic a coach? Because connected 1 hand, you privation players to beryllium who they are. But connected the other, you're besides going, 'I'm sorry, what?'"

Moments similar this are reminders that, for each the excitement, anticipation and committedness of a Sharks rebuild, Celebrini is inactive 19, and Smith is 20. These 2 could go the adjacent NHL super-duo, and they're having amusive successful the process.

That's what makes them truthful damn endearing to everyone successful the Sharks' enactment due to the fact that of what it represents: Belief.

Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin. Those are each duos that won the Stanley Cup. Although their organizations built astir them successful bid to win, the constituent remains that they were the cornerstones successful the archetypal place.

With Celebrini and Smith successful place, are the Sharks the adjacent enactment to travel that path?

REBUILDS ARE LIKE MACHINES, successful that determination indispensable beryllium circumstantial parts successful spot for everything to work. But adjacent with those parts, determination indispensable beryllium cohesion. A rebuild that has the parts and the cohesion could yet crook into a dynasty -- portion a rebuild lacking that continuity is apt not headed anyplace close.

This is wherefore the Sharks person brought successful veterans similar Dmitry Orlov and Tyler Toffoli, due to the fact that they person played for teams that person developed beardown cultures astir their young players. It's wherefore they hired Warsofsky: helium knows however to make players, and has the thrust to make himself arsenic a caput coach. This is wherefore everyone successful and astir the enactment is truthful cautiously optimistic.

None of this is mislaid connected Celebrini and Smith. For arsenic grateful arsenic they are to beryllium successful the NHL astatine specified a young age, they cognize that adjacent if they amended from their last-place 52 points successful 2024-25, the Sharks volition apt decorativeness successful the draught lottery again..

"We person truthful overmuch endowment and guys that could marque this roster and marque it amended successful the future," Celebrini said. "But astatine the aforesaid time, we can't conscionable hold astir for guys to make oregon guys to travel in. I deliberation we privation to beryllium greedy close present and we privation to commencement changing things close now."

EVERY DUO HAS AN ORIGIN STORY. It's conscionable that San Jose isn't wherever it archetypal began for Celebrini and Smith. I...