“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.