Caleb Malhotra

And only a very small amount of those guys are NHL level players.

And then you do it again.

And only a small amount of NHL players make the difference for a franchise, right?

Like if you're not dominant at 16 in the BCHL, there's signal there that we shouldn't ignore.

Now I'm not saying that that's something you necessarily have to hold against Caleb Malhotra forever, right?

The fact is, is he started this OHL season on a third line?

He played like a top line center and became a top line center.

And even as, you know, that Brantford Bulldogs team added star OHL level players at the deadline, they kept him on power play one.

He sort of became their leading scorer in the playoffs.

He went on an unholy tear.

And so the bet you're making isn't that it doesn't matter about his 16 year old season.

It's that, you know, like guys we've seen in the past, like Beckett Seneca, he's on a rocket ship trajectory now that's going to continue.

But you also have to ignore, in my opinion with Malhotra, that his scoring profile is not typical for a guy that you'd be taking in the top five.

It's not.

We usually see top five picks, even two-way centermen, be far more productive at the same age than Caleb Malhotra has been.

And to me, anyway, that probably is a concern.

I'd add this.

I think the Canucks are also really high on Chase Reed, the defender.

I think Malhotra is the apple of their eye, but I think Chase Reed will be heavily discussed by the Canucks in sort of the pre-draft process.

And everyone around, everyone you talk to who's watched Chase Reed says it's