WINDSOR, ONT. \u2014 Caleb Malhotra grew up around the game of hockey thanks to dad, Manny, who played in the NHL for 16 years before making the jump into coaching. But this week in Windsor he\u2019s experiencing something new at Hockey Canada\u2019s summer camp for World Junior hopefuls. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first time putting on the Maple Leaf in any kind of capacity, so when it\u2019s the first time I feel like it\u2019s that much more meaningful,\u201d the 18-year-old centre said. <\/p>\n
Even the first practices in Windsor carried extra meaning. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of emotions,\u201d said Malhotra, who was picked third overall by the Vancouver Canucks in June\u2019s draft. \u201cA pretty special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Malhotra gets his first taste of game action as Canada takes on Sweden at the World Junior Summer Showcase. You can watch the game on TSN plus at 7 p.m. ET. Canada will wrap up the exhibition event with games against Finland on Thursday and the United States on Saturday. <\/p>\n
Malhotra had heard stories from friends and teammates over the years about playing for Canada at the under-17 and under-18 levels. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey talk about how much fun it was and how cool it was to represent your country and now I\u2019m at a point where I get to have that opportunity to try out for the World Junior team,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just cool to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malhotra is looking to build on the momentum gained during a breakthrough 2025-26 season. He piled up 29 goals and 84 points in 67 games with the Brantford Bulldogs. <\/p>\n
What does he want to show this week? <\/p>\n
\u201cSimilar to what I showed this year,\u201d Malhotra said. \u201cJust that I have another gear and that my pace has gotten better. And my ability to make plays and shut down guys is something I\u2019ve worked on a lot this summer and just in general … so just [want] to make a statement and make my mark as a player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Misha Donskov, who met with Malhotra 1-on-1 on Tuesday, is already impressed. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of energy, a lot of passion, a lot of internal fire,\u201d Donskov noted. \u201cThat comes out to me as a coach. Like, he really cares about his teammates and the game. Competitive guy with a lot of skill. Really looking forward to watching him play.\u201d <\/p>\n
Malhotra is the highest draft pick on Canada\u2019s roster and has been skating on a line with Soo Greyhounds captain Brady Martin, who is among the eight returning players at the camp, and Philippe Veilleux, who plays for Val-d\u2019Or in the QMJHL. <\/p>\n
\u201cReally good,\u201d Martin, the fifth-overall pick to the Nashville Predators in 2025, observed with a smile. \u201cHe just got drafted higher than me, I guess, so he\u2019s a good player. He reads the play really well so it\u2019s going to be a lot of fun to play with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a complete player and I think he just took off in the second half of the season into the playoffs,\u201d said Hockey Canada general manager Alan Millar. \u201cArguably could have been Brantford\u2019s best player on the run that they had to the Eastern Conference final.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malhotra led the Bulldogs in goals (13) and points (26) during their 15-game playoff run. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an unbelievable kid, unbelievable player,\u201d said Edmonton Oilers winger and Bulldogs co-owner Zach Hyman, whose brother, Stuart, serves as general manager in Brantford.<\/p>\n
\u201cManny did a great job raising him and he\u2019s such a good person, such a good player. I was so happy with his development last year. Before the year he was rated to go in the second or third round and he rose all the way to be the third overall pick and he\u2019s going to be a really good one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hyman predicts that Malhotra will be joining him in the NHL \u201cpretty soon.\u201d But before making the jump to the NHL, Malhotra plans to play at Boston University and is hoping to follow in his father\u2019s footsteps and represent Canada at Christmas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the GM in Guelph when Manny played there, so it was a special phone call to Caleb to invite him to the camp,\u201d Millar said. \u201cManny was almost the perfect third-line centre if you had a really good team, a shutdown, smart, two-way guy. I think Caleb brings a lot of those qualities and, Manny might not like this, but Caleb maybe has a little more offensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Manny, who is now the Canucks head coach, played for Canada at the 1998 and 2000 World Juniors. In 2000, he served as captain and led the team to a bronze-medal win. Caleb says his dad still speaks with pride about wearing a letter for Canada at the event. <\/p>\n
What would it mean to win the gold medal that eluded his old man? <\/p>\n
\u201cThat will be a little cherry on top if I get to that point and this team gets to that point,\u201d Malhotra said. \u201cThat\u2019s our standard here and we\u2019re going to make sure we execute this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINDSOR, ONT. \u2014 Caleb Malhotra grew up around the game of hockey thanks to dad, Manny, who played…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[47424,13665,17,19256],"class_list":["post-148594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-brady-martin","tag-caleb-malhotra","tag-canada","tag-manny-malhotra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}