{"id":763745,"date":"2026-06-27T02:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/763745\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:13:12","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-about-the-canucks-round-1-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/763745\/","title":{"rendered":"What you need to know about the Canucks’ Round 1 picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three weeks after the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> introduced Manny Malhotra as their new head coach, the organization brought things full circle by selecting top centreman \u2014 and Manny\u2019s son \u2014 Caleb Malhotra with the third-overall pick Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a special moment for both father and son, and for an organization taking its first steps forward with new leadership \u2014 and a new young star.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what you need to know about Vancouver\u2019s newest forward.<\/p>\n

Third Overall:\u00a0Caleb Malhotra<\/p>\n

2025-26 Team:\u00a0Brantford Bulldogs, OHL<\/p>\n

Stat Line:\u00a029G-55A-84PTS in 67 games<\/p>\n

Malhotra rose through my rankings throughout the season and ends the year as the top-ranked centre on my list, by the slimmest of margins. Malhotra was deployed in all situations in Brantford. His combination of size, skill and three-zone detail are attractive elements. He produced 29G-55A in the regular season and added 13G-13A in the playoffs. Malhotra was also an excellent interview at the combine. He\u2019s mature beyond his years and working hard to prepare himself to play in the NHL next season.<\/p>\n

What you need to know about Malhotra:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The biggest story of this pick is the obvious family connection, and that\u2019s incredibly special.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in addition to the remarkable father-son story now unfolding at the centre of Vancouver\u2019s rebuild, the Canucks also just got themselves a remarkable talent. Malhotra was widely considered the top centreman on the draft board, and it\u2019s easy to see why. He needed just one OHL season to launch himself into the top three of the 2026 draft class, ranking second league-wide in assists and producing at well over a point-per-game pace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He really lit things up in the playoffs, registering 13 goals and 26 points in 15 post-season games with the Bulldogs. He led all league rookies in post-season production by a pretty wide margin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s set to make the jump to the college circuit next season, having committed to Boston University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You could say Malhotra was born to be a Canuck. He spent some of his formative years in Vancouver during dad Manny\u2019s playing career there. But his athletic roots run even deeper, coming from both sides of the family. His mother, Joann, played college soccer at the University of Victoria. And his uncle? That\u2019s legendary Canadian basketball star Steve Nash, two-time NBA MVP. Nash was part of the Malhotra family\u2019s draft party in Buffalo, the proud uncle celebrating another incredible athletic achievement for the family.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three weeks after the Vancouver Canucks introduced Manny Malhotra as their new head coach, the organization brought things…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-763745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}