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31 days, 31 questions: Which Canucks prospect will make their NHL debut next?
Photo credit: © Tav Morisson-CanucksArmy
By Jacob Fraser
Aug 12, 2026, 12:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 12, 2026, 12:34 EDT
Welcome to a new series here at CanucksArmy, where over the month of August, we’ll ask a new question each day about the Vancouver Canucks. We’re calling it “31 days, 31 questions”. Today, on August 12th, we examine which Canucks prospects might make their NHL debut next.
We recently finished our collective CanucksArmy top 20 Vancouver Canucks summer prospect rankings. With that, we saw the more recently acquired Canucks prospects shine brightly on the board. Caleb Malhotra finished things off as our number one-ranked prospect, but is it really as simple as that to say he’ll be the first to make his NHL debut?
That’s the question we’ll be diving into today.
So, quick recap: the Canucks added Malhotra, Adam Novotný, Brooks Rogowski, Niklas Aaram-Olsen, along with a few other names, while players like Riley Patterson and Sawyer Mynio have yet to make their NHL debut and are further along in terms of their development.
Let’s kick things off with Malhotra.
While being considered by many to be the Canucks top prospect after being selected third overall by the team in this year’s draft, this coming season, he’ll be making his way to the NCAA to play for Boston University.
Since he’ll be playing college hockey this season, Malhotra won’t have the chance to prove himself like Braeden Cootes in training camp. This means the earliest we could see Malhotra suit up in a Canucks jersey is sometime in the spring once Boston University finishes out this season.
While this seems like a completely possible scenario, both the Canucks and Malhotra’s camp seem willing to let him marinate a bit before making the jump to pro hockey. Despite being the third overall pick, Malhotra is still a fairly raw prospect and has really only one year of success at the junior hockey level. Don’t get me wrong, there’s obviously a ton of potential there, but unless he explodes offensively and dominates college hockey in his freshman season, it might be best to keep him there for a second year.
For now, we’ll say Malhotra has a good chance of playing NHL games this season, but the most likely timeline at this point is that we see him in Vancouver sometime the following season.
Unlike Malhotra, Novotný will be sticking with the OHL this season. This opens up more possibilities for him to see NHL games sooner rather than later.
Novotný will be at Canucks training camp, and given the foundational aspects of his game, he’s arguably the most NHL-ready prospect in the Canucks most recent draft class. That being said, there’s still much to work on before he can truly be seen as an everyday NHLer.
The Canucks new management regime has preached patience, so I wouldn’t expect Novotný to get much of a look when it comes to making the opening night lineup, but as we saw with Cootes last year, this isn’t completely out of the question.
It’s still, however, more than likely that we see another full season with Peterborough for Novotný, and then next season he could get a more serious look at making the Canucks roster.
Is it out of the realm of possibility that the Czech winger gets a cup of coffee in the NHL this season? No. But he’s more than likely on a similar timeline to Malhotra.
Rogowski would be a great Curtis Douglas replacement, and he’d surely become an instant fan favourite, but that’s not what he or the team needs.
Rogowski’s headed back to Oshawa this season to play for the Generals in the OHL; after that, he’s off to Michigan State University, where he’s currently committed for the 2027-28 season. The likelihood that he will reverse his commitment and play NHL games before he makes his way to the NCAA seems very low.
He has the frame to jump into pro hockey, but there are so many areas of his game that need work before it makes sense to put him in that situation.
While it would be fun to see Rogowski suit up in a Canucks uniform, we’re probably at least three years away from seeing that become a reality.
The final name we’ll touch on coming out of this year’s draft class is Aaram-Olsen. Out of the Canucks top four picks, he was the fourth taken by the team. This coming season, he’ll be tagging along with Malhotra at Boston University. While Malhotra could potentially see NHL games after this college hockey season, the Norwegian winger is more likely to spend at least a couple of seasons in Boston.
Even after his college hockey career wraps up, it wouldn’t be a shock if Aaram-Olsen spent some time in Abbotsford before making his way to Vancouver.
Aaram-Olsen has the NHL-caliber shot in his game already, but there’s a lot more work to be done before becoming a player ready to take on the NHL.
In this case, like Rogowski, we’re probably at least three years away from seeing Aaram-Olsen in the NHL. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if he were able to get a taste of it at the end of the 2027-28 season, assuming all goes well at Boston University.
This is where we get into the two names of Canucks prospects who are a bit older, have some pro hockey experience under their belts, and could get some looks as early as this season.
Mynio was the Canucks ‘ third-round selection in the 2023 NHL Draft and spent the entirety of last season in Abbotsford. While the team struggled mightily due to injuries in both Abbotsford and Vancouver, Mynio was given a significant role with the AHL club and didn’t look out of place.
There was some thought throughout last year that he could even get a few games in at some point last season. Obviously this didn’t end up happening, but with Ryan Johnson taking over as the team’s General Manager and Manny Malhotra as the team’s Head Coach, Mynio will surely be someone they could look to as the season goes on.
On the Canucks current defensive depth chart, Mynio probably fits somewhere in that nine-to-10 range, but as we’ve seen in the past, this team may need to go deeper into the organization to fill slots once injuries begin to pile up.
Assuming Mynio has a good start to the year in Abbotsford, there’s a good chance the people in charge will reward him with a game or two in Vancouver this year. If things don’t go according to plan for Mynio this year, or injuries aren’t as big of an issue as they have been previously, then we’ll likely be waiting till next season for him to get his first shot in the NHL.
Patterson was saved for last because this is probably the guy who will get the first look. He does only have four games of pro hockey experience on his resume, but when he joined Abbotsford late last season, he jumped right into a significant role and played really well.
Similar to Mynio, in Patterson’s case, injuries will likely play a pretty big factor into whether or not he gets into an NHL game this season. That being said, he’s a right-handed centreman playing for an organization with a desperate need for a right-handed centreman.
Cootes is definitely ahead of Patterson when it comes to the current pecking order, but he’s not even a guarantee to make the team directly out of camp again this season. What we could see is something like Cootes splitting some time this year between Vancouver and Abbotsford, while someone like Patterson gets a look here and there.
Patterson likely won’t be an NHL regular this season, or even the following year, but it shouldn’t surprise anyone if he spends some time up with the big clubs during parts of this upcoming season.
Now that we’ve broken it down one by one, let’s make a quick rankings list in terms of who’s most likely to make their NHL debut first.
1: Riley Patterson
2: Sawyer Mynio
3: Caleb Malhotra
4: Adam Novotný
5: Brooks Rogowski
6: Niklas Aaram-Olsen
When it comes down to who’s going to be the first to make the Canucks squad full-time, either Malhotra or Novotný probably takes the cake. But when it comes down to who’s more likely to play a game in the NHL, it’s easier to say the guys who are further along in their development and have that pro hockey experience are the ones who come out on top.
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