Prospect Info: The 2026 NHL Draft First Round Thread - Part 4

[dep]

As so many of this board like to say, never draft for organizational need.

I don't know what they need most, but I'm pretty sure they do not need a fourth 2C/3C player.

 

[dep]

“if we actually need”

You think we don’t??

What are you talkng about? Of course we have needs, we just don't need another 2C.

 

[Mike Pecarino]

I haven’t seen anyone project Caleb as a 50 pt defensive centre, no.

Doesn’t mean he won’t be a 50 pt defensive centre. As of now, nobody knows. Projections are just what they are.

 

[CanaFan]

Doesn’t mean he won’t be a 50 pt defensive centre. As of now, nobody knows. Projections are just what they are.

Sure, he might even turn out to be a stay at home defenseman if we’re playing the “we can’t know anything” game. Maybe even a Vezina-winning goaltender. Fun stuff imaginizing all the things he could turn out to be

 

[CanaFan]

I don't know what they need most, but I'm pretty sure they do not need a fourth 2C/3C player.

Pretty sure we could use a high end 2C who has a realistic path to being a 1C.

Outside of EP40, we don’t have one of those.

 

[Mike Pecarino]

Sure we can disagree about where Caleb is ranked.

That doesn’t change the fact that a father/son combo at the NHL is weird as hell and only the Vancouver Canucks would be dumb enough to do it.

its weird no matter how you slice it. Everyone can be all hunky dory about it, kumbaya, but there’s a potential powder keg waiting to happen in this scenario, especially in Vancouver with our rabid fans and media who seem to love a good scandal.

 

[StickShift]

As so many of this board like to say, never draft for organizational need.

I think generally across this board we need to distinguish between tactically drafting for need (“We need a RD to play with Quinn Hughes”) versus drafting strategically a methodology (“we build out our team from the center and defense”).

If you can turn yourself into a center or defense factory through effective drafting, you have assets you can flip to other teams to fill holes via trade.

 

[Mike Pecarino]

Sure, he might even turn out to be a stay at home defenseman if we’re playing the “we can’t know anything” game. Maybe even a Vezina-winning goaltender. Fun stuff imaginizing all the things he could turn out to be

All gut busting humour aside, It goes both ways.

 

[Bitz and Bites]

I am hoping we take Stenberg or trade down to 4-6. Pick up a couple of high 2nds by doing it twice maybe. Fiest to Chicago if we don't want Stenberg. Then to Calgary. Pick up Malhotra, Carels or Bjorck and get compensated for being completely stupid about Stenberg.

But I am really, really hoping we find a way to get another pick in the 8-10 range. Again Bjorck, Rudolph or Gustafsson.

We need top six forwards and this draft has very few of them so I’d rather take one of Stenberg or Malholtra instead of trading down and looking at a D-man instead. For the record, I do like Bjorck but running with Rossi/Bjorck as your top two C is kinda lacking.

 

[Canucks LB]

You can win without a true Elite 1C, but you need Incredible Balance and elite players around the roster to make it work.
(Think of Washington, Blues) for example.
not ideal, but possible.

 

[CanaFan]

All gut busting humour aside, It goes both ways.

I mean, if you want to talk about “we don’t know how any prospect will turn out”, then sure. Malhotra could be a 50 pt 3C, he could be a 100 pt 1C, he could get injured tomorrow and spend his life selling used cars for Basant Motors.

But that’s not the point of NHL projections, it’s meant to make a reasonable best guess at what they might become if they hit. So if you want to play the “but he could” game then fine, but be sure to play the same game for Stenberg too, and point out that drafting a 50 point small, defensively responsible winger would be a bad outcome at 3oa too.

 

[Mike Pecarino]

That’s probably true, but Caleb is not a 1C anyway. Why waste a #3 pick on him? Next year’s draft has a much stronger class of centers if we actually need to look for a franchise 1C.

This has been my argument against Caleb. If it comes to picking between a no. 1 right shot D-man or a number 1 winger or a number 2 centre you go with the D or winger. Especially with Cootes on board. We ain’t exactly hurting for centres at the moment - Pettersson, Rossi, Cootes, Chytil, Blueger, Raty. Plus the centre stock in 2027 is much better than 2026. Especially in first line centre potential.

 

[Rowlet]

It's interesting that the BPA argument is only ever used to discredit Malhotra.

Why is it okay to want Reid if he's the BPA despite red flags that we aren't even allowed to mention, but taking Caleb at 3 is impossible because of other flags, which are a lot less red...

The scouts are saying Malhotra at 2, so we should be stoked to potentially get him at 3.

edit:

the same thing for "drafting for positional need" too, the team needs everything, why is drafting for positional need bad only when it means we end up with Stenberg.

 

[Kill Vector]

I am hoping we take Stenberg or trade down to 4-6. Pick up a couple of high 2nds by doing it twice maybe. Fiest to Chicago if we don't want Stenberg. Then to Calgary. Pick up Malhotra, Carels or Bjorck and get compensated for being completely stupid about Stenberg.

But I am really, really hoping we find a way to get another pick in the 8-10 range. Again Bjorck, Rudolph or Gustafsson.

Why stop there, let’s trade out of the first round for 10 7ths.

 

[Mike Pecarino]

I mean, if you want to talk about “we don’t know how any prospect will turn out”, then sure. Malhotra could be a 50 pt 3C, he could be a 100 pt 1C, he could get injured tomorrow and spend his life selling used cars for Basant Motors.

But that’s not the point of NHL projections, it’s meant to make a reasonable best guess at what they might become if they hit. So if you want to play the “but he could” game then fine, but be sure to play the same game for Stenberg too, and point out that drafting a 50 point small, defensively responsible winger would be a bad outcome at 3oa too.

You know how I feel about Malhotra, I’m just not seeing a first line centre there and we ain’t exactly hurting in centres. I’d rather the guy with first line winger potential in Stenberg and number 1 D potential in Reid. IMO those two I believe will bring more value to a team.

 

[CanaFan]

You know how I feel about Malhotra, I’m just not seeing a first line centre there and we ain’t exactly hurting in centres. I’d rather the guy with first line winger potential in Stenberg and number 1 D potential in Reid. IMO those two I believe will bring more value to a team.

Sure, but you keep jumping around here. So are we done with the “Malhotra’s ceiling is a 50-pt Selke finalist” tangent? Cause that’s the one I disagree with, as it’s just not his realistic projection.

If you’d rather lean into Stenberg and his projections, that’s fine by me. It’s all personal preference in my eyes, as none of these players is far enough from another to really get riled up about (in my books and, more importantly, in a lot of NHL scouts books).

 

[ginner classic]

Why stop there, let’s trade out of the first round for 10 7ths.

An unserious reply.

 

[ginner classic]

We need top six forwards and this draft has very few of them so I’d rather take one of Stenberg or Malholtra instead of trading down and looking at a D-man instead. For the record, I do like Bjorck but running with Rossi/Bjorck as your top two C is kinda lacking.

We need everything and everyone in and around the game agrees on that. We are in no position to prioritize positional needs at the top of the draft.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

As so many of this board like to say, never draft for organizational need.

We need everything.

So don’t draft anyone?

 

[AquiliniHurtsMySoul]

I think Liam Ruck is the choice at 24, although I'll bet teams will be calling RJ telling him they're going to take Marcus and try to force us to trade up lol.

 

[CanaFan]

.

We need everything.

So don’t draft anyone?

If you took the aggregate of this thread, that would be the likely outcome.

 

[Aquilini2Benning]

Did you dislike Bob McKenzie list as well? This is the same thing and is being made to replace his list and for all we know is the same scouts he used.

But you don't know. Grain of salt for me.

Sure it’s thin, but assuming it’s random then the average opinion of those 10 scouts is going to be a fair representation of the opinions of the other 300 scouts. You don’t need a complete census to get a good sense of what the prevailing opinions are on things. It’s certainly better than relying on any single scout or draft watcher for your rankings. And more importantly, these are NHL scouts with NHL credentials and resources, not Will Scouch sitting in his basement inventing new ways to put a 3rd round guy in his top 5.

I disagree. It's polling a very small amount ( like 3.33% of scouts), with unknown and varying amounts of scouting exp as well as pull within their departments, with the influence of different organizational needs being a factor. Do you really think that different scouts don't have differing opinions?

 

[Kill Vector]

An unserious reply.

Correct.

 

[CanaFan]

But you don't know. Grain of salt for me.

I disagree. It's polling a very small amount ( like 3.33% of scouts), with unknown and varying amounts of scouting exp as well as pull within their departments, with the influence of different organizational needs being a factor. Do you really think that different scouts don't have differing opinions?

On average, no, I think they’d have fairly similar opinions. Or at least those opinions would be proportioned fairly similar to the 10 scouts that were polled. i.e. 1 scout had Malhotra 1st, 4 had him 2nd or 3rd, and probably the rest had him at various points in the top 10. You go and poll the remaining 300 and it’s going to approximate that distribution, within reason. He’s definitely not going to be 2nd with those 10 and 8th with the remaining 290. Samples are generally good at capturing averages, even when they are small.

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

That’s probably true, but Caleb is not a 1C anyway. Why waste a #3 pick on him? Next year’s draft has a much stronger class of centers if we actually need to look for a franchise 1C.

No argument from me that Caleb probably isn’t a 1C..I’m just not sold on what we currently have down the middle.