- Canucks sign 24th overall pick Adam Novotny to a three-year entry-level contract
- The 18-year-old Czech winger scored 34 goals in his OHL rookie season
- Read below for the terms, Ryan Johnson’s scouting take and the Caleb Malhotra holdup
Vancouver got one of its two 2026 first-round picks under contract on Tuesday.
The Canucks agreed to terms with forward Adam Novotny on a three-year, entry-level deal carrying a $1.075 million cap hit. He went 24th overall in June and turns 19 later this year.
General manager Ryan Johnson was asked in the team’s announcement what stood out about the winger at development camp in Abbotsford last month.
“Character, compete and a winning mentality, those are three of the things we really appreciate about Adam’s DNA. It was a small sample size, but he showed us a lot at our development camp last month in Abbotsford. Besides his strong skating, puck control, and quick release, Adam was relentless in his pursuit of the puck and battled very hard in each drill.”
Novotny is coming off a huge first year in North America. He put up 34 goals and 31 assists in 58 games with the Peterborough Petes, pacing the OHL club in scoring as a rookie.
Take a look at what the 6-foot-1 winger did in Peterborough last season:
That was a jump from where he started. The year before, Novotny played 41 games for Mountfield HK in the Czech Extraliga and managed three points against grown men.
Scouts liked the process more than the raw numbers. Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis ranked him 17th on his final draft board and called him a rugged, heavy-playing forward who projects as a top-six power forward in the 40-to-50-point range.
His international résumé is already stacked. Czechia took silver at the 2026 World Juniors with Novotny in the lineup, a year after he helped them win bronze, and he owns a silver from the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup too.
Signing him now matters because the alternative was messier. Novotny was never a college route, so getting the deal done before camp lets him compete for a roster spot instead of sitting in limbo.
One first-rounder is still unsigned in Vancouver. Caleb Malhotra, taken third overall, has yet to put pen to paper.
If Novotny doesn’t stick out of training camp, he heads back to Peterborough for another OHL season.
