NHL: Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks host Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks at SAP Center on Thursday

San Jose Sharks’ Macklin Celebrini (71) waits for a face off against the Vancouver Canucks during second period of an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press via AP)

SAN JOSE – Two of the game’s elite young stars will play each other for the first time as NHLers on Thursday when Macklin Celebrini and the San Jose Sharks face Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks at SAP Center.

Celebrini and Bedard figure to be linked together for years to come, maybe throughout their careers, as they play the same position, share the same hometown, and as No. 1 overall picks in back-to-back years, are the crown jewels of each team’s respective rebuild.

“You remind yourself a little bit of like the Sidney Crosby-(Alex Ovechkin) days, when they were kind of the one-two punch after each other and the battles that they would have,” Blackhawks captain Nick Foligno said. “And I’m sure that the league is hoping for the same kind of rivalry that begins with these two.”

Celebrini was injured for the Sharks’ first two games against the Blackhawks earlier this season, which the two teams split. Maybe a subtle difference between the 18-year-old Sharks center, and Bedard, 19, this year, though, is who they’ve had along for the ride all season.

Celebrini and fellow rookie forward Will Smith, taken fourth overall in the 2023 draft, which Bedard headlined, have become close friends and appear to be almost inseparable. They hang out off the ice and have created viral social media moments.

Most recently, a photo was shared online last week of Tyler Toffoli sleeping on a third bed inside Smith and Celebrini’s hotel room in Denver. Smith insisted to the veteran that he needed to sleep over after all three scored goals in a Sharks win over the Buffalo Sabres.

That friendship has tremendously benefited Celebrini and Smith, who turns 20 next week.

“It’s great,” Celebrini said. “Having a friend around my age, just to hang out with every day and kind of go through the same day-to-day stuff and adjustments, it’s been great just to have him by my side, kind of go through some of this with him.”

“It’s definitely helpful,” Smith said. “Not even with the hockey part or anything. Off the ice, you need a guy your age, because when you come from college, you get to hang out with the boys all day. But here, everyone has families and stuff, so it’s a little different.”

While Celebrini and Smith both turned pro a few weeks apart, and have been on the Sharks roster all season, Bedard was surrounded by veterans at the start of the season as the Hawks brought in more experienced players in a bid to support their cornerstone player.

It didn’t come close to working out, and now Chicago has started to go younger. Defenseman Artyom Levshunov, 19, and goalie Spencer Knight, 23, are in, replacing Seth Jones, 30, and Petr Mrazek, 33, at those respective positions.

“I thought last year we were really young, and then this year, coming into the season, we were pretty old,” Bedard said, drawing some laughs. “Actually, not old, but older, I guess. But we came into the year one of the oldest teams in the league, and obviously there’s trades, there’s stuff that happens.

“It’s been fun. A lot of guys are coming up and making an impact.”

Bedard has close friends on the Blackhawks, of course, but perhaps lacked, at least at the start of year, that best buddy situation that Smith and Celebrini have developed. It’s changing, now with Chicago, as of Wednesday, having the third-youngest roster in the NHL. The Sharks are the sixth-youngest team.

“It makes it a lot of fun, when you have guys that are all around the same age and trying to learn together, grow together,” Bedard said.

Celebrini and Bedard are both top-six centermen and franchise centerpieces but have different qualities. Bedard, with 52 points in 65 games, is an offensive dynamo with a deadly release. Celebrini, with 48 points in 54 games, quickly gained a reputation for winning puck battles and his hockey IQ while exhibiting perhaps a more well-rounded game.

“I think Mack will control the game a little bit more in terms of vision,” new Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais said. “Obviously, Bedard has great vision, but I think he’s more of a shooter. Where Mack, I think he’s going to be a little bit more of a pass-first or a playmaker.”

“He’s so defensively aware for his age,” Sharks goalie Alexandar Georgiev said of Celebrini. “He’s always back checking hard and sometimes makes, maybe riskier plays than needed. But that’s normal when you have a skilled player like that, I think his skill is off the charts.

“I’ve seen (Bedard) a couple games that we played, and he’s a real threat every time. You really felt like every time he goes on the ice, something happens.”

Still, the Sharks enter Thursday in 32nd place in the NHL’s overall standings with 43 points, six points back of the 31st-place Blackhawks. The general managers for both teams, Mike Grier and Kyle Davidson, have indicated they need to start building up their rosters again after years of selloff, but reaching contender status again will take time.

Maybe at some point, the games between Bedard’s Blackhawks and Celebrini’s Sharks will have special meaning. For now, it’s just the first chapter.

“Them and us, we have a ways to go before it’s a high-level rivalry, where we’re both in a playoff spot, and maybe we’ll face each other in the playoffs,” Celebrini said. “Both of our franchises need a little bit of time to get there. But I think what they’re doing is great, and I think we have a plan to turn this around soon.”