It’s all but guaranteed at this point that Boston University center Macklin Celebrini will be the first overall pick in the 2024 Draft. He has the potential to be a franchise altering superstar with game breaking offensive skills to go with a really complete defensive skill set. While Celebrini may not be at the Connor Bedard-level of talent, he is certainly an above average talent when compared to other first overall picks.
Today, I am going to be ranking the best teams for Celebrini to join while keeping his best interest in mind. That means the top team must have a spot in the depth chart perfect for him, a chance to win important games in the near future (or a clear path toward success), quality teammates/prospects to play with, have a sensible rebuilding timeline that he fits into, among a few other factors. There isn’t a team in the NHL that wouldn’t absolutely love to add him, but some teams would be much better destinations for him than others.
Related: 2024 NHL Mock Draft 1.0
I will be ranking the NHL’s 11 worst teams from the 2023-24 seasons, as they are the only ones with a chance at landing the first overall selection. The NHL’s Draft Lottery rules dictate that a team can only jump up a maximum of 10 spots meaning just 11 teams have any hopes of winning the right to draft Celebrini. Let me be very clear, there are no bad options here, as every team in the bottom 11 this season has the potential for greatness with the addition of Celebrini.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at which NHL teams would make for the very best landing spots for Celebrini.
11. Calgary Flames – 5%
The Calgary Flames have some good young wingers like Jakob Pelletier, Connor Zary and Matt Coronato, but nobody down the middle or on the backend who could change the team’s fortunes in the near future. Celebrini would give them that, but this team doesn’t look likely to run a successful rebuild in the modern-era where bottoming-out is the standard way of finding franchise cornerstones.
Could the Flames be a decent playoff team within the next three years? Sure. Will they be good enough to hold onto that level of success once the play of guys like Jacob Markstrom and Jonathan Huberdeau start to decline? Probably not. That’s a weird spot to be as a potential “face-of-the-league” level player which is why the Flames are at the bottom of this list.
10. Seattle Kraken – 6%
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