Friday will be a homecoming for Macklin Celebrini.
Celebrini, who's expected to be selected No. 1 overall by the San Jose Sharks in Las Vegas, played for the Junior Sharks and his father, Rick, is vice president of health and performance for the nearby Golden State Warriors of the NBA.
The younger Celebrini has been the top prospect in NHL Central Scouting's rankings all season. He excelled at Boston University and received the Hobey Baker Award despite being the youngest player in college hockey.
A couple other college hockey players could go early in the first round: Michigan State defenseman Artyom Levshunov and Denver University defenseman Zeev Buium, whose team won this year's NCAA title.
What to know about this weekend's NHL draft:
The 2024 NHL draft will be held Friday and Saturday at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The first round will start at 7 p.m. ET Friday and the second through seventh rounds will start at 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday.
The first round will be shown Friday on ESPN and Saturday's rounds will be shown on NHL Network. The draft will be the first televised event from the Sphere.
Both days of the draft can be streamed on ESPN+.
A mock draft by the independent scouting service Red Line Report has Celebrini, Ivan Demidov, Levshunov, Cayden Lindstrom and Tij Iginla going in the top five. Full mock draft
There were none during the first round last year, though there was plenty of movement beforehand. There have been moves before this year's draft with the Sharks and Buffalo Sabres swapping first-round picks and the Ottawa Senators sending a first-rounder to the Boston Bruins in the Linus Ullmark trade.
Iginla, the son of Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla, has the most famous bloodline. But the sons of former NHL players Saku Koivu (Aatos), Miroslav Satan (Miro) and Derek Plante (Max) are also in the draft pool.
Celebrini's brother, Aiden, is a Canucks draft pick. Adam Jiricek (David), Buium (Shai) and Cole Hutson (Lane) are among those with brothers who have been drafted.
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