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One of the big stories of this year’s NHL season will be the battle for the Calder Memorial Trophy — given to the league’s rookie of the year — and one of the early favorites, San Jose Sharks forward Macklin Celebrini got off to a hot start that even impressed Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green.

Celebrini made his regular season debut after missing a big chunk of the preseason with an injury.  But, he was in the opening night lineup against the St. Louis Blues.

Of course, some wondered if Celebrini would be up to NHL speed after missing some time (*raises hand*) but he proved them wrong in a hurry, opening the scoring seven minutes into the first period when he threw a backhander toward the net from the top of the circle, and it caught a nice bounce off the skate of Blues defenseman Matthew Kessel.

It’s a good thing that Celebrini already has a firm grasp on why coaches say “Get pucks on net,” until they’re blue in the face. It’s because sometimes things like that happen.

Awesome stuff and it caught the eye of one of Celebrini’s biggest supporters, Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green.

Celebrini’s dad, Rick, is the Warriors VP of Player Health and Performance and Green has followed Macklin’s career for years.

With that tweet, Celebrini is in some rare company. Green apparently likes to use his X account to shout out young, superstar athletes. Check out the two tweets of his that came right before the one about Celebrini’s goal.

Not bad company to be in at all.

Celebrini added an assist later in the game, but unfortunately, he plays in San Jose and the Sharks are gonna Shark. 

They had a 4-1 lead going into the third period, but gave up three to force overtime and in that extra frame, Blue captain Brayden Schenn scored the OT-winner to give the Blues a 5-4 win and 2-0 start to this season.