Caleb Malhotra wants to follow in his dad's footsteps

Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) - Caleb Malhotra will be a high pick and could be a top-five pick in this weekend's NHL Draft. The Hockey News has the forward rated No. 6. If the name sounds familiar it should, Malhotra's father Manny played 991 games in the NHL with the New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes. He is now the new head coach of the Canucks.

Numerous times three of the Sabres Josh Doan, Mattias Samuelsson and Tage Thompson have told me about how their dads that played in the league helped them. Shane Doan played 1,540 games with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets organization. He played 74 games in his rookie season with the Jets before they moved to Phoenix where he was the seventh overall pick in 1995. Kjell Samuelsson played 813 games with the Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning. Brent Thompson played 121 games with the Los Angeles Kings, the Jets and the Coyotes.

Malhotra was in Buffalo in the beginning of June for the NHL Scouting Combine and he said it's because of his dad that he is where he is today,

"It's because of my dad that I started playing hockey being around it all the time, learning from him, watching him, I kind of remember him playing (Manny retired in 2015-16) and when he was coaching learning so much from him teaching me small details that most guys don't get to learn, so it was a massive privilege to get to learn from him."

Malhotra played for the Brantford Bulldogs in the OHL and scored 29 goals and 55 assists for 84 points in 67 games. He obviously didn't feel the pressure of this being his draft year,

"I was just going out there and playing, I've had a lot of adversity and made my way up to be fortunate enough to be in this position and I wasn't really worried about too much pressure."

The Hockey News has defenseman Chase Reid ranked third overall. Reid played for the Sault Ste. Greyhounds which means he went up against Malhotra and he was impressed,

"You never know what he's going to do, he's a very unpredictable player, so he does tremendous things with the puck , he's got the goal scoring mindset, he's got the ability to make plays and setup his teammates and play in the defensive zone as well."

Malhotra was asked to give a scouting report on himself. He said,

"My game is extremely two-way, I'm very reliable. Offensively I'm a playmaker, get my teammates open and give them very good looks and I'm also a guy that can finish. I'm very versatile offensively and also defensively checking top guys and being able to be physical at times and be smart with the puck."

Malhotra played for Jay McKee in Brantford. He liked working with the former Sabres defenseman,

"He's very intelligent and detail oriented, so he expects so much from us, so learning from him how to approach the game and what to take out of video and apply it to your game is a big thing I learned this year."

The prospects meet with quite a few of the NHL teams and with the Canucks drafting third overall, of course they met with Malhotra. Caleb was asked what it was like to talk to them knowing that his father is their head coach?

"It was a weird phone call after asking how the meeting went, but we were both pretty professional about it, so it was pretty cool."

Malhotra said many of the teams asked him what it would be like playing for his dad.

Teams ask and have the players do goofy things during their meetings at the Combine. Malhotra and others were asked by Montreal to step back and throw a puck into a garbage can.

Our coverage of the NHL Draft begins Friday live from the arena at 7:00 with Brian Koziol. He'll have Brayton Wilson upstairs with him and Joe Cali down on the draft floor with the players. I'll be with the Sabres who will be working out of the Buffalo Bills draft room at the stadium.