Which bottom-10 NHL teams need to win the Macklin Celebrini lottery most?

The 2024 NHL Draft is shaping up to be one of the most consequential in a generation.

No, Connor Bedard isn’t available this time around, but the team that ends up selecting first overall this year will be looking at a pretty sweet consolation prize: Macklin Celebrini, a star Boston University freshman and the consensus top prospect available.

Celebrini won’t turn 18 until June, but he has 32 goals and 64 points in 37 games with a Terriers team that has already punched its ticket to the Frozen Four. He’s looking like the real deal.

As of April 3, the San Jose Sharks occupy last place in the NHL and are slated to have the best odds to win the top pick in the Draft Lottery, which will be held during the upcoming playoffs.

In addition, the teams that finish in the 10 spots above the Sharks (who, let’s face it, will finish last) will also have a shot at moving up to take Celebrini with the No. 1 selection.

Some of those teams need Celebrini more than others. While certain teams are assuredly desperate to add a player of Celebrini’s pedigree and skill-set, others in the bottom 10 would probably be just fine with any other prospect near the top of the draft.

Here’s a quick look at the five teams who need Macklin Celebrini the least — and the five who need him the absolute most.

Needs the least

5. Columbus Blue Jackets — The Blue Jackets don’t have a GM. Their incumbent head coach was a last-second replacement for a guy who never coached a game in Columbus. None of their three top prospects (Adam Fantilli, David Jiricek, and Kent Johnson) has lasted the full season in the NHL, mostly due to injuries and the coach’s decisions. Overall, it’s been a bit of a gong show in Columbus this season, and it’s hard to tell whether Celebrini would fix all that much. This is a team that needs a complete re-evaluation from top to bottom. They have so many talented players, including three top-notch young centers in Fantilli, Johnson, and Cole Sillinger. It just feels like the problems in Columbus extend far beyond the on-ice personnel currently in place.

4. Ottawa Senators — The Sens have a robust young core that includes Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Jake Sanderson, Thomas Chabot, and Drake Batherson. While they’d undoubtedly stand to benefit from adding a first-overall prospect in Celebrini to their group, they should be fine down the middle either way. It’ll be interesting to see how rookie Senators GM Steve Staios approaches his first offseason on the job, particularly considering the team’s issues with depth scoring and goaltending. On the positive side, they’ve got their top center in Stützle and their top defenseman in Sanderson locked in for the long haul. At this point, it should be all about fleshing things out around those two guys. They’re looking like legit cornerstone pieces.

3. Anaheim Ducks — No, they’ve never picked first overall, but the Ducks are pretty much set for the future regardless of whether they land Celebrini this year. Their group of young forwards already includes Leo Carlsson, Mason McTavish, and Cutter Gauthier, not to mention the likes of Trevor Zegras and Troy Terry. That’s as solid a group of talent up front as you’ll find in the league, even when you factor in the rampant trade chatter that has surrounded Zegras this season. In any case, what Anaheim should covet in this year’s draft is a top defensive prospect like Sam Dickinson or Artyom Levshunov, particularly after moving Jamie Drysdale for Gauthier last fall. Getting Celebrini would be gravy for the Ducks, but they have more pressing needs and other teams could use him far more.

2. Chicago Blackhawks — Just … no. There’s a strong case to be made that the Blackhawks never should’ve been allowed to pick Connor Bedard in the wake of the franchise’s serious past transgressions being exposed to the public. Much to the chagrin of fans and onlookers around the league, the Hawks got him anyway. Bedard is a singular young talent who figures to be a dominant No. 1 center for years, if not decades, to come. Chicago can more than make do with one first-overall pick, thank you very much — particularly considering that some of their fellow bottom-feeders have never won the lottery even once. The Blackhawks would do just fine with their choice of Ivan Demidov, Cayden Lindstrom, or Sam Dickinson. Celebrini in Chicago would be extreme overkill.

1. New Jersey Devils — C’mon. There’s no guarantee the Devils even end up a bottom-10 team, but if they do … they don’t need Macklin Celebrini. They already have two all-stars at the center position in Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier, both of whom were No. 1 picks in their respective draft years. While this Devils team could stand to benefit from making some changes to their defensive personnel, they’re as strong down the middle as any team in the entire National Hockey League and should remain so for the foreseeable future. This is an unlucky would-be (and should-be) playoff team that looks to be a strong starting goaltender and some defensive tweaks away from being a contender again. All this is to say: New Jersey winning this year’s lottery would be a complete and utter travesty.

Needs the most

5. Montreal Canadiens — Although the Canadiens did just pick first overall in 2022, they still need a bit of help down the middle. For as good a player Nick Suzuki has become in Montreal, it’s more than fair to question whether he’s better suited to being a first- or second-line center down the road. Adding a guy like Celebrini into the mix would make that question a lot easier to answer for the Habs. While the Canadiens aren’t quite as desperate for forward help as they were before Juraj Slafkovsky started to blossom, they very much still need another long-term top-six guy. Wouldn’t it be something if the Habs could have Celebrini and Slafkovsky on the top line and Cole Caufield and Suzuki on the second?

4. Seattle Kraken — As the NHL’s newest franchise, the Kraken haven’t had as much time as the other teams on this list to build a strong pipeline of young players. That’s not to say they don’t have some of them — Matty Beniers, Shane Wright, and Jagger Firkus all have plenty of upside — but it’s become increasingly apparent over the last year that the Kraken still lack superstar talent. Celebrini offers that in spades. He’s a West Coast guy who would be a perfect building block for a team still in its infancy. Celebrini could do for the Kraken what a guy like Rick Nash did for the Blue Jackets back in their early years. Beyond that, it’d be up to Seattle’s management to do a better job of building a team around their star than Columbus did.

3. Arizona Coyotes — The NHL’s most divisive and maligned franchise needs an arena more than anything else, but a player like Celebrini would be a close second on that list. The Coyotes have quietly assembled a formidable core group of forwards that includes Logan Cooley, Clayton Keller, Dylan Guenther, and Matias Maccelli, but someone like Celebrini might actually be capable of pushing them into a playoff spot while they’re still rocking on at Mullett Arena. Think of how the Coyotes might’ve been able to grow as a franchise if they’d won the Auston Matthews lottery back in 2016. Celebrini didn’t grow up in Arizona like Matthews did, but he’s a top-end talent who would be the first No. 1 pick in Coyotes history. Nope, they’ve never won the lottery, which was introduced in 1995.

2. San Jose Sharks — This one just makes a lot of sense. The Sharks have been bad for a little while here but they have yet to pick first overall in franchise history. They have some strong prospects in Will Smith, William Eklund, and Quentin Musty, but Celebrini would be on another level entirely for that team. They’re struggling to fill seats at the SAP Center and Celebrini’s family has ties to the area, with his father currently serving as director of sports medicine and performance for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Given the Sharks’ history and their most pressing needs, Celebrini landing in the Bay Area would be a pretty natural fit for all sides involved. He’d become their cornerstone piece.

1. Calgary Flames — While the Sharks have never picked first overall, the Flames are one of only two teams in the NHL to never make a single selection in the top three. They’ve also never moved up in the draft lottery even once. The Flames are at the very beginning of their rebuilding phase and are desperate for players who can move the needle. Unlike pretty much every other team on this list, the Flames don’t really have a core group of young players. They’re basically a blank slate. Who better than Celebrini to kickstart that retooling process in earnest? Not only would Celebrini give the Flames a player to build around for a long, long time, but he might also help them get some use out of veterans like Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau while they’re still on the roster. Celebrini would solve a lot of problems for a Flames team that doesn’t currently have any fixes for them. For those reasons (and more), the Flames are the lottery team that needs Celebrini the most.