How Brent Burns helped convince the Celebrini family that San Jose was OK

SAN JOSE – Turns out former San Jose Sharks defenseman Brent Burns had a hand in helping Rick Celebrini finalize his decision to move his family from Vancouver to the Bay Area after he accepted a position with the Golden State Warriors six years ago.

Celebrini was hired by the Warriors as their director of sports medicine and performance in 2018 after Chelsea Lane, then the team’s head of physical performance and sports medicine, left to join the Atlanta Hawks.

But before he and his wife Robyn moved their family to Northern California, Celebrini wanted to make sure his two oldest boys, Aiden and Macklin, could continue their hockey development in a proper setting.

Enter Burns, whose reassurance gave Celebrini some peace of mind. After all, Burns’ young son, Jagger, was already in the Jr. Sharks program.

“The kids were born and grew up in Canada, up until six years ago when I accepted this position with the Warriors,” Rick Celebrini said Thursday night on ABC7’s “After the Game.”

“So we packed up and headed down as a family. Part of that decision-making was to make sure that there was a good hockey program down here for the boys to continue their development. I talked to Brent Burns at the time and some of the (Sharks) players and they sort of reassured me that it was a great program down here for the boys to continue their path.”

The Celebrini family then rented a home in San Jose close to Sharks Ice, “and that’s where the boys kind of spent a year of their development before going on to Minnesota.”

During the 2019-2020 season, Macklin had 101 points, including 54 goals, in 61 games for the 14U AAA Jr. Sharks, and Aiden, a right-shot defenseman, had 20 points in 56 games for the 15U AAA Jr. Sharks. Aiden also had 22 points in nine games for Willow Glen High School.

Both Aiden and Macklin, now 19 and 18, respectively, went on to play at Shattuck St. Mary’s for two more seasons. To start, Macklin joined the 14U AAA team at the Faribault, Minnesota school and Aiden played on the 15U AAA team.

They then both committed to Boston University after visiting the school during the 2022 NBA Finals when the Warriors played the Celtics.

Aiden was a third-round draft pick by the Vancouver Canucks last year, and Macklin is expected to go first overall to the Sharks at the NHL Draft later this month in Las Vegas.

“It’s exciting. You run the gamut of emotions,” Rick Celebrini said of Macklin likely being the No. 1 draft pick. “It’s surreal, it’s hard to believe at times, and yet, it’s around the corner and we’re so excited. It’s been exhausting as well.”

Macklin Celebrini was just in South Florida, where he met with the media and spoke with Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final. Right before that, he was in Buffalo, New York, for the NHL scouting combine, where he also met with reporters and interviewed with eight teams.

“Just all the demands on Macklin and then, secondarily, our family. Just different interviews and asks and requests,” Rick Celebrini said. “So for a 17 year old kid, to see what he has gone through and how he’s kind of handled it and conducted himself, that’s what probably makes me the most proud right now.”

The youngest Celebrini brother, RJ, plays youth hockey in the Bay Area.

“We have a little 11-year-old, a sort of aspiring hockey player as well,” Rick Celebrini said. “Growing up in Canada, you’re so immersed in it. Everywhere you look, it’s hockey. You really can’t get away from it.”

Before moving to California, the family lived near the North Shore Winter Club in North Vancouver, which counts former Sharks Martin Jones and Evander Kane among its alumni.

“It was just such an incredible environment for the kids to drop off in the morning and they would stay there as sort of a safe place that they could jump on the ice come off, grab something to eat, jump in the pool, jump back onto the ice,” Celebrini said. “And it was just such an incredible environment for them, so it wasn’t a coincidence that they fell in love with the game and sort of followed their passions in that area.”