“I’m Going to Help This Team Win”: Malhotra on Being Drafted By Canucks, Novotny Steal and Goals at BU
There was a moment in Buffalo, as Vancouver’s pick approached, when Caleb Malhotra could no longer reason his way through the wait.
He had spent his draft year telling himself the right things. He had played his game, put in the work and shown teams who he was. Whatever happened, he believed, would happen for a reason.
Then the draft began, the Canucks came up on the board, and the third overall pick was suddenly close enough to touch.
“That was probably the most nerve-racking moment of my life,” Malhotra said. “I was just sitting there like, ‘Am I going to Van? Or is there something else in my future?’”
The answer changed everything at once.
Vancouver called Malhotra’s name, and he walked to the stage as the newest centerpiece of the organization’s future. He hugged his family. He posed for the photos. He worked through what became about three hours of media. And, like so many players before him, he found that the defining seconds of his life were strangely hard to remember.
“I kind of blacked out,” he said. “Don’t really remember much.”
What he does remember is the release.
“Just hearing my name, it was the best feeling in the world. There’s no other way to put it. You just feel all the relief, all the emotions… it all comes out at once. You’re like, ‘This is the next, for my foreseeable future. This is the path I’m taking.’”
Draft day had begun much differently. At breakfast with other potential picks, he was too nervous to eat much. In the building, even 45 minutes of waiting felt like hours.
Then came the call from Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson.
Malhotra had known Johnson through being around his dad. Still, he was talking to his new GM on the biggest night of his life, and his first words were not exactly polished.
“The first thing I said to my new GM was, ‘What’s up?’” Malhotra said, laughing. “Probably not the best way to start off a conversation with your future boss.”
Johnson, thankfully, took it well.
The Canucks’ message after development camp was just as direct: Boston University was the right next step. Malhotra already knew that was his route, irrespective of where he was drafted. Vancouver’s job was not to rush the process; it was to make sure he had what he needed to own it.
“We want you to go develop and become a better player because we think that’s probably the best path for you as well right now,” Malhotra recalled Johnson telling him. “We’re here for you if you need any resources.”
For a player who had just stepped into one of hockey’s loudest markets, that mattered.
“Having that support and just knowing that I have that backbone, and someone I can talk to and trust and look to help out at all, it’s huge,” he said.
‘We Got This Absolute Player’
Malhotra did not get much of a chance to track the rest of the draft after Vancouver selected him. There were interviews, photos and a flood of people pulling him in different directions. But when the Canucks were on the clock again, he found a television and checked the board.
He hoped his new team would find someone good.
Then Vancouver got Novotny.
“I couldn’t believe he was still up there,” Malhotra remembered thinking. “It was awesome. We got this absolute player.”
Malhotra knew Novotny from OHL and CHL events and was happy to have a familiar face in the class. He was even more emphatic about the value.
“Steal, in my opinion.”
That shared history helped when Malhotra headed to Vancouver for development camp. He flew west with Novotny and Brooks Rogowski after a brief stop home in Toronto, a small pocket of comfort amid the disorienting first days of being a professional prospect.
Familiar Faces
The familiarity didn’t end at Canucks development camp for Malhotra.
There was another familiar face waiting for him at Boston University: Xavier Villeneuve. The two roomed together at the NHL combine and are now dorm mates at BU.
“He’s a character. He’s a great dude,” Malhotra said.
Although Villeneuve’s laid-back personality makes for fun in the dorms, his hockey persona makes him less easy to contain on ice. Malhotra had seen him at the CHL Top Prospects Game, but two weeks of practice in Boston has made the point repeatedly. Villeneuve is the type of blue-liner who has you doubting your instincts with every stride.
“You tell yourself, ‘I’m not going to get beat by him. I’m just going to stay in front of him. I’m going to close out the blue line against him in practice,’” Malhotra said. “And then he just shimmies by me somehow.”
The trait that jumps out, Malhotra said, is the Chicago prospect’s skating. “He’s so quick on his edges. He can change direction just so quick.”
At BU, the Lane and Cole Hutson comparisons are inevitable for an attacking defenseman. Malhotra understands the weight of those comparisons, but he also sees the talent that makes them reasonable.
“I think he’ll be able to live up to it,” Malhotra said. “He’s an elite player.”
The partnership is one of the intriguing subplots of a loaded BU roster: Malhotra, the No. 3 pick and center with the responsibility to drive the middle of the ice; Villeneuve, a gifted puck-mover who can turn a routine breakout into an advantage.
“In my head, I have something to prove now,” he said. “It’s a new level, new competition, new players to play with.”
Goals At BU & World Juniors
Although he doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself, Malhotra also has another goal floating in the back of his mind.
“The World Juniors is one of my goals, obviously,” he said. “I want to play in that tournament. I want to be able to bring Canada gold.”
And he knows how difficult Canada’s roster will be to crack. The summer camp was a reminder of the volume of elite players competing for the same opportunity, and he called simply getting a taste of that environment exciting.
But the goal is firm.
“I want to be on that team come December,” Malhotra said. “That’s definitely one of my goals this year.”
His approach is to keep that ambition from becoming a distraction. The biggest lesson from his draft year, he said, was staying present and leaning on people he trusts instead of scrolling rankings, prospect videos or opinions about his game.
“I think just listening to the people around me is what got me through last year,” Malhotra said. “Trusting them that they know what’s best for me and they’re here to help me.”
That means family, his agent and a BU staff he already feels comfortable with — particularly head coach Jay Pandolfo.
Malhotra describes himself as a defensively responsible center who also wants to create. Pandolfo’s demands, in Malhotra’s early read, should give that profile a framework. The center is essential in BU’s defensive structure: closing space in the defensive zone and shutting plays down quickly.
“How he sees the game, as far as how centermen need to check and where they need to be, I think we’re going to get along great,” Malhotra said. “That’s something I’ve worked on a lot and something that’s a really important part of the game for me.”
That is the immediate assignment. Get bigger and stronger. Bring more physicality. Learn how much more intense each college game becomes when there are fewer of them, and when every one carries more consequence. Make a difference for BU before worrying about the timing of Vancouver.
“I want to be able to prove myself as a player in college and have an impact on this team,” he said. “When I get those opportunities, I’m going to make sure I’m effective and help this team win.”
The NHL players who reached out after draft night, Filip Hronek and Brock Boeser, and the Canucks he later met and trained around in Vancouver gave him a glimpse of the standard. Seeing the summer work of Thatcher Demko and Jake DeBrusk was motivating, he said.
But Malhotra’s focus is narrower than the horizon makes it tempting to be. He is a third overall pick. He is a Canucks prospect. He is a freshman on a talented BU team with a World Juniors dream in front of him.
For now, he is trying to make every day point toward those things.