The Bulldogs centre has been shooting up draft boards throughout a very strong draft year.
Now that the Memorial Cup is over, the 2025-26 season on the ice has concluded in the entire CHL, and the focus truly shifts over to the off-season.
The NHL draft is one of the highlight events for many across the junior hockey sphere, with many of the top 18-year-olds and overagers finding out which professional organization they'll continue their careers with.
Here, we'll be highlighting some of the OHL's top prospects over the next few weeks that will go near the top of the draft before the event happens in Buffalo on June 26-27.
Brantford's Caleb Malhotra has established himself as arguably the top centre in the draft, and will likely be selected in the top five. (Photo: Brandon Taylor/OHL Images)First up is the meteoric rise of Brantford Bulldogs centre Caleb Malhotra. Entering the year, he joined Brantford after a solid but unspectacular BCHL season, he was on the radar of NHL scouts, but certainly not one that could really challenge at the top of the draft.
But, under Jay McKee and a stacked Bulldogs team, Malhotra exploded. He grew with the team as the season went on, and became their best player down the stretch, outplaying guys such as Seattle top-10 pick Jake O'Brien, St. Louis first-rounder Adam Jiricek, Chicago first-rounder Marek Vanacker and more.
By the time the playoffs rolled around, it was Malhotra who drove the bus offensively. While Brantford's championship dreams didn't come to fruition, it sure wasn't the fault of the Toronto-born centre.
He had 13 goals and 13 assists in 15 postseason games, including some big goals in big moments.
While his draft stock jumped as the season went on, the playoffs sent it to the moon. At this point, it would be a surprise if Malhotra wasn't the first centre selected, potentially going as high as a top-three selection.
The big appeal to the 6-foot-2 forward's game goes beyond just the points and offence, too. Some of that comes down to his bloodlines, with father Manny being a longtime NHLer, typically being a bottom-six centre who's a defensive anchor and faceoff specialist.
Caleb has his dad beat offensively, but you can see some of the defensive aspects in the finer details of his game. He tracks back, he understands his assignments, and he puts himself in good spots on both sides of the puck.
This gives his game some good projectability as a top-six two-way centreman that teams really covet, especially in a draft year that's pretty weak down the middle.
The question marks around Malhotra is what his upside truly is. When you're taking a player in the top five of the NHL draft, you typically want the upside of the player to be franchise-changing.
While Malhotra does a lot of things well, has a very mature game and can easily be projected to be a second-line centre on any team in the league, trying to say he'll be a nailed-on first-line centreman is a bit of a stretch.
His offence is good, but he's not one to take over a game and score 100 points in an NHL season in his future. And while he's very good defensively, it would be wrong to expect him to be a sure Selke candidate at the top level.
Comparisons to guys like Jonathan Toews, Patrice Bergeron, Anze Kopitar, Aleksander Barkov and players of that ilk seem a bit too high. It may be more likely Malhotra is a player like a David Krejci or Vincent Trocheck, someone who is a very valuable piece in the top six of a good team, but isn't the centrepiece of the team.
It seems likely that a team will like Malhotra enough to make him the first centre taken later this June, and he'll be a name you'll hear in the NHL for a very long time.
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