3 NHL Stars Comparable to Canucks’ Caleb Malhotra

One of the major questions fans have after their team completes a draft is “Who are the players we drafted most like?” Fans can look at the stats, game tape, and scouting reports, but at the end of the day, the easiest way to understand a player is to compare them to ones we are more familiar with.

With the Vancouver Canucks drafting Caleb Malhotra with the third overall pick in the 2026 Draft, I thought it would be interesting to look at some players with whom Malhotra shares similarities. These are somewhat best-case scenarios, as these players have established themselves as valuable pieces to competitive NHL teams. Still, many scouts were high on Malhotra for a reason, including the Canucks. So with that, let’s dive in.

Bo Horvat

The NHL comparable for Malhotra that Canucks fans would be most familiar with is Bo Horvat. Both are responsible centres who are just over 6 feet tall and have solid scoring ability. They also both have reputations for showing leadership in locker rooms, as Horvat was previously the Canucks’ captain and Malhotra seems poised to wear a letter in the NHL one day.

Horvat and Malhotra had similar arcs in the juniors. In Horvat’s first season with the London Knights, he had less than half a point per game. He exploded the next season, tallying 33 goals and 61 points in 67 games as well as 16 goals and 23 points in 21 playoff games. Malhotra also experienced a major jump in production, going from eight goals and 26 points in 44 games with the Chilliwack Chiefs in the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) to 29 goals and 84 points in 67 games with the Brantford Bulldogs of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Malhotra also had an excellent playoff run, scoring 13 goals and 26 points in 15 playoff games. 

Horvat played really well for the Canucks, but once he joined the New York Islanders, he really found his groove. He set a career-high in goals and points in his first full season on Long Island, and his consistency earned him a spot on Team Canada for the 2026 Olympics.

If a team gets a player of Horvat’s caliber with the third overall pick, they certainly should be satisfied. 

Anton Lundell

While the Florida Panthers’ Anton Lundell may not get the fanfare of the other comparables in this article, a player like him is a great outcome for teams drafting third overall. 

Lundell is a somewhat difficult player to assess due to the talent surrounding him. He has been a member of one of the most stacked forward groups in recent memory that won back-to-back Stanley Cups. He played in the shadow of fellow countryman Aleksander Barkov for those championships, and it’s clear he learned a thing or two from him. Last season, due to injury, he was thrust into the role of the team’s main shutdown centre, and he performed admirably. The Panthers deployed him in the defensive zone more than the rest of their forward group, showcasing the trust the coaching staff has in him. 

Another thing worth noting about Lundell is that he’s proven to be a playoff monster. Across the 47 games the Panthers played in their back-to-back Cup wins, Lundell put up 35 points while playing tough minutes. As mentioned previously, Malhotra played the best hockey of his draft year in the OHL Playoffs, which shows his capability to step up to the big moment.

Lundell doesn’t have the raw numbers or pedigree of Malhotra’s other comparable players, but his consistent, dependable game and playoff heroics make him the kind of player every team wants to draft.

Nick Suzuki

As great as Horvat and Lundell are, Nick Suzuki is probably the absolute best-case-scenario comparable player for Malhotra.

Suzuki had always been a good player before this past season, but he really took off in 2025-26, putting up 29 goals and 101 points to earn him fifth place in the Hart Trophy voting. He also was awarded the Selke Trophy, as he had excellent underlying defensive numbers and went head-to-head with many of the game’s elite centres. It’s especially impressive that he was able to perform so well both offensively and defensively while playing in the Atlantic Division, which is an absolute gauntlet of talent on both sides of the puck.

Suzuki was a similar OHL playoff riser to Malhotra, as the two joined superstars Connor McDavid and Mitch Marner as being the only draft-eligible OHL players to ever lead their teams in playoff scoring, with a minimum of three rounds played. 

The Malhotra-Suzuki comparison does feel like a bit of a pipe dream when you look at what Suzuki has accomplished, but they share a lot of the same positive traits that translate well into the NHL.

Becoming His Own Player

Ultimately, Malhotra’s goal isn’t to be another player; it’s to be the best version of himself he can be and to help the Canucks turn the ship around. Still, if the Canucks get a player with a similar skill set and production to any of these three, their first-round selection can certainly be viewed as a success.