- Caleb Malhotra pulled on a Canada jersey for the first time at the World Junior Summer Showcase
- His father Manny captained Canada at the 2000 World Juniors and came home with bronze
- Read below for Malhotra’s full comments and where Canada goes next in Windsor
Caleb Malhotra put on a Canada jersey for the first time Monday.
The 18-year-old center, who went third overall to Vancouver in June, spent his first day inside Canada’s national junior camp at the WFCU Centre in Windsor.
His dad has a World Juniors story of his own. New Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra captained Canada in 2000 and came home with a bronze medal, so Caleb got asked whether that left the family anything to finish.
“Definitely,” Malhotra told NHL.com. “That’ll just be a little cherry on top if we get to that point.”
Getting the jersey over his shoulders hit harder than he expected. He had never worn the Maple Leaf before at any level.
“It was a pretty special moment,” he said. “It’s my first time officially putting on the Maple Leaf in any kind of capacity, so I feel like it’s that much more meaningful.”
Canada rolled into Windsor on Monday evening already down a body. Hockey Canada announced that defenseman Xavier Villeneuve can’t take part in the Showcase:
Malhotra knows exactly what he wants on tape this week.
“I just want to show that I have another gear, and my ability to make plays and shut down guys,” he said. “It’s something I’ve worked on a lot this summer.”
The numbers are already there. Malhotra put up 29 goals and 84 points in 67 games as a rookie with the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs, a franchise rookie record, then piled on 26 more points in 15 playoff games. Boston University gets him this fall.
Take a look at Malhotra a few minutes after Vancouver called his name in Buffalo:
Ask him about his own World Juniors memories and he goes straight to Connor Bedard’s overtime winner against Slovakia in 2023. Malhotra got so fired up that he laced up his roller skates at intermission and went out to stickhandle in the road.
Now the man who raised him is the one running his NHL team. Vancouver posted its latest All Access episode on Monday, tracing the combine through the draft floor where the two connected:
Sweden is up next for Canada on Wednesday, with the United States waiting on Saturday to close out the Showcase. The 2027 World Juniors run Dec. 26 through Jan. 5 in Edmonton and Red Deer.
