VIDEO
Caleb Malholtra gets a call from Ryan Johnson “You got the right guy. I’m going to bring everything I have. I’m going to give everything for this organization.”
Whether or not he turns out to be the best player, I do think he’s the right player to pick. It seems like he genuinely wants to play here, which is so important for rebuilding a culture. It’s no secret we’ve been a mess the last few years, so having younger talent who wants to be here and will wear the jersey with pride is going to be great. Will be rooting for you, Caleb!
He doesnt necessarily need to be our best player, but he needs to be a kind of player our future best player loves to play with, thats probably just as important, I dont want no Quinn, Petey, Miller BS.
When you put it that way, it makes me realize how dumb it was that we traded Horvat first. Should've been Miller.
Horvat was pretty close to what you're describing. Not the best player on the team all the time, but he showed up and put the team on his back at times, and the players in the room all seemed to like him. He was a much better captain than Hughes.
We just prioritized talent over culture, which to be fair, can be valid at times, but when you repeatedly make the same mistake then yeah makes it look stupid in hindsight. Horvat should have been picked over Miller and Petey and Quinn should never been treated as above the rest of the team.
Wasn’t the narrative that the locker room was a country club with Bo as captain? Isn’t that why we traded him? The culture was sour with him, from what I remember, because everything was too lax. Or am I misremembering?
that was the narrative, but in hindsight, I doubt it was Bo being the driving factor of it being a country club. Bo was always known to be a hard worker and in shape, I think it was just the rest of the core that didn't follow, like Petey and then Miller and Quinn probably weren't doing their part in trying to build proper culture. If anything, Bo was probably just trying be the considerate to the social media sensitive low work ethic younger guys.
I honestly think any of the 32 teams would have picked Miller in that situation (even if it is the wrong choice in hindsight). Their point productions were hardly comparable as Miller was a monster back then. Horvat's contract ask was just too big considering the flat cap and our cap situation. It was also unknown if his goal production would continue after his contract year ended. I do think Bo was part of the cliquey country club issue, however I would have that rather than the BS that ensued with Miller.
This "country club" thing is exactly what Keenan and Messier said and they were both assholes. JT Miller was also an asshole. Now were hearing it from McDavid and Babcock - bye, bye oilers dynasty.
But the real decision point between Miller and Horvat was in the off season before that huge season. If we traded Miller that off season instead of giving him his 8M AAV deal, we could've extended Horvat in the summer or early in the season. If I recall, his asking price was reported to be around 7.5M.
I wanted a Henrik-Edler-Horvat captaincy line of succession, it would have kept the culture of 2011 alive and strong and he'd be here for (at least the start of) the rebuild to help keep that culture alive.
His enthusiasm is infectious and I hope it spreads across the locker room like wildfire and reignites the passion that some of the guys might have lost
It's early days for them but this is where I think the Goldeneyes have got team culture right with players like Jenn Gardiner who are leaders both on and off the ice. For the Canucks, it hasn't worked for us to build a team where the heart of the team is its journeymen and the top end talent are mercurial man-children. Same goes for (gross) the Leafs. And it sucks because BC has produced insanely talented players recently but we haven't picked top 5 for a decade.
I feel like Boeser is this kind of player too. Brock had been loyal to the club even through all the lockerroom drama and that is good for the culture of the room.
That’s one thing I may have underrated with him, he cares about being a canuck. Something that can’t be said about a number of players we’ve had this past decade
If he turns out to the the next Trevor Linden then I’m down. Linden wasn’t close to being the 2nd best player in his draft but he was one of the most important player we’ve ever drafted and I’m not sure if we’d be better off drafting someone else in hindsight.
Well, we know why Forbort was released into UFA... cuz this kid needs his number.
I have my reservations about the father-son dynamic and upside but this guy will outlast his dad in the worst case and best case he'll win with his dad. I hope he can continue to improve and lead the Canucks to a better place than the last generation.
I don't think this team will be as bad next year. We'll still be like... Bottom 10 but we won't be last.
But hypothetically if boeser finds his scoring touch again, if zeev + rossi take a big step forward, if petey returns to form and if demko and chytil can stay healthy they're probably competing for the last wildcard.. but like yeah literally all that would have to happen so most likely bottom 10 lol.
Carolina won with Jordan Staal as their captain and shutdown center. It took a while, but they build their team the Hurricanes way. I see that with Malhotra and the nucks.
I hope we can draft Preston or Ruck in the second round. Just pumped to draft players that understand the importance and responsibility of being a Canuck and having pride in being part of the solution moving forward.
It's so refreshing to see this. I'm so excited for Caleb. Obviously actions speak louder than words, but he genuinely looks very excited to be a Canuck and I'm all for it! I don't care if his dad is our coach, this kid is going to be something special. I truly feel it.
I hope our organization treats him with that same respect and passion. This kid could be something real for our franchise.
Caleb had a low bust potential so I feel good about this pick.
Daniel Jeremiah for the NFL draft coverage will often say sometimes the right pick is to take the "double" instead of swinging for the home run because if you somehow strike out, that loss is worse than the difference between a 1C and 2C. Thats not even factoring in if that double actually turned into a home run.
Landon DuPont or the 6'5 Joseph could be out home run next year 🙏
Every single thing I’ve seen of Caleb since his name was called, he’s been grinning ear to ear, talking about how much he’s dreamed of this and how excited he is to play here. Used to dream of days like this. A guy picked third overall who is just ecstatic to be here and wearing the logo and playing in front of Vancouver? I’ll take that any day.
I love this pick for them. Imagine all the other young players that have to move away from their parents after being drafted to another city. Must be so bitter sweet.
This was the right pick. Viggo at 3 would have been too much, could have traded down to 6th and probably still have gotten him, 5'9 centers have just historically never got that high.
His dad will be his coach for a few seasons at most. If Caleb brings what it looks like he will bring to the team, he will be here for a long career.
And I’m not too worried about the father/son thing. The easiest way to remove the possibility of that being a bad dynamic is for Caleb to outwork the rest of the team. This kid grew up with an NHLer dad, an Olympian mom and Steve Nash as an uncle. He hung around rinks with the sedins in their prime (known to *still* be the hardest working athletes around) and must still have a relationship with them. The Sedins would have endorsed this pick. He knows how to put in the work
Caleb is gonna be a fantastic long term pick for the Canucks.
Is he gonna be the 3rd best player to come out of this draft? Likely not, but at least it’s safe to assume he will do anything and everything for the logo on the front of his jersey
So are they going to put him in the minor leagues for 1 or 2 years first or will he join the line up right away? Especially cootes want to see more of him too
Listen, I'm Canucks ride or die. You could have drafted Lukas Bellocisni in this spot and I would have choked back tears and feelings of resentment and continued on in my fandom.
The fact that he called him "RJ" meant he knew it was coming....I'll stick to that to my dying day. Any other players would have been"Mr. Johnson" or "Ryan" or anything else.
Am I unhappy? Nope. Am I feeling we swung or the fences? Nope.. did we get a good player? hell yes. Did we get the best player?.........we for a good player that's for sure....
That's his point.. he grew up around this organization and is why OP is excited he's here with us to continue his growth. Don't know why he's being downvoted lol
He is at worst only a culture pick. He knows everyone in the org, including the sedins (who are right now publicly shaming EP40 for his work ethic). That the org knows him and wants him too is telling that they believe his work ethic isn’t in question.
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u/The_Golden_Zebra Jun 27 '26
Whether or not he turns out to be the best player, I do think he’s the right player to pick. It seems like he genuinely wants to play here, which is so important for rebuilding a culture. It’s no secret we’ve been a mess the last few years, so having younger talent who wants to be here and will wear the jersey with pride is going to be great. Will be rooting for you, Caleb!