WINNIPEG — Macklin Celebrini set a San Jose Sharks‘ franchise record for points in a season after a goal and pair of assists in a 6-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
Celebrini finished the season with 45 goals and 70 assists, his 115 points surpassing former San Jose great Joe Thornton’s 114 points in 2006-07. Both played 82 games.
William Eklund also recorded a goal and two helpers, Will Smith notched a goal and assist, and Collin Graf, Igor Chernyshov and Michael Misa also scored for the Sharks (39-35-8). John Klingberg contributed three assists.
Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 25 shots for San Jose, which hasn’t made the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons.
Despite capping off a disappointing season with a four-game losing skid, a capacity crowd of 15,225 fans at Canada Life Centre stood and cheered the players after the final whistle.
The Jets are the fifth NHL team to win the Presidents’ Trophy for the best regular-season record (116 points last year) and not qualify for the playoffs the following season.
They finish 26th with 82 points (35-35-12). They last missed the playoffs in 2021-22.
Cole Koepke scored for Winnipeg and Eric Comrie made 27 saves.
Jets: Winnipeg finished 19-16-6 at home this season, not reaching the 20-win mark at home for the first time in nine full seasons. It was Winnipeg’s ninth sellout of the season, compared to 16 regular-season full houses last season. Five Jets played all 82 games: Kyle Connor, Dylan DeMelo, Mark Scheifele, Jonathan Toews and Gabriel Vilardi. Scheifele led the team with a career-high and franchise-record 103 points and Connor recorded a team-best 39 goals. It’s the first time in his career that Vilardi has played an entire season, and Toews’ first time since 2018-19. Vilardi had career-highs in goals (30) and points (69).
Sharks: After Celebrini’s 115-point campaign, thenext highest point-getter was Smith with 24 goals and 59 points. Celebrini, Mario Ferraro, Barclay Goodrow and Dmitry Orlov all played 82 games. San Jose swept the Jets in three matches for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Misa and Eklund scored with just under two minutes left in the second period to give the Sharks a 5-1 lead.
Celebrini’s three-point outing capped an outstanding record-setting season for the 19-year-old North Vancouver native.