Crosby says NHL rookie deserves consideration for Team Canada.

One of the biggest topics during the upcoming 2025-26 National Hockey League season will be the performance of players that have a legitimate shot at making their country's Olympic roster for the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

It will be the first time that we will see NHL players return to international hockey in far, far, too long and understandably there is a ton of excitement and questions about who will be making the teams.... and who will be left out.

Generally speaking teams tend to go with more experienced players when it comes to these massive tournaments, but recently one NHL superstar made it clear that he believes a young rookie deserves some serious consideration. That superstar is none other than Sidney Crosby, a man whose voice carries a lot of weight in his home country of Canada.

Crosby recently suggested that he believes that San Jose Sharks rookie Macklin Celebrini is a young man who should at least be considered as a player who could make the team.

"He’s earned the right to be in the conversation," said Crosby as per The Athletic.

Crosby is of course not one of the decision makers when it comes down to those final, crucial, roster choices but I suspect that he is a player of enough stature that his opinion will be considered. St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong, who will serve as general manager of Team Canada for this upcoming event, has made it clear that he believes both Celebrini and fellow Canadian forward Connor Bedard will need to show they belong this upcoming season.

"They’ve been told that Oct. 7 to Jan. 1 is massive for them, like it is for everybody else," said Armstrong "You don’t have to be a certain age to make this team. If you’re good enough and you can help us compete to win, then you’ll make this team."

Celebrini will be entering only his second NHL season when the 2025-26 season officially gets underway, but it seems he has already caught the eye of those who matter most. Celebrini is coming off of a great rookie season in which he had 25 goals and 38 assists for a total of 63 points, it will be up to him to show that he can be even better if he wants to earn that coveted spot on Team Canada ahead of the Olympics.