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Canucks: Adam Novotny could play in the AHL this season, but should he?
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Sep 21, 2026, 18:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 21, 2026, 15:28 EDT
We heard plenty about Adam Novotný’s “pro-ready frame” in the days leading up to and after the Vancouver Canucks selected him 24th overall at the 2026 NHL Draft.
And during Canucks training camp this past week, we saw it in action with our own eyes.
Novotný’s strength on his skates and ability to win board battles and come out with possession against NHL regulars were impressive from day one. That area of the game was one Braeden Cootes struggled with in his first NHL training camp a year ago, but Cootes looked far better this week after a year of getting stronger. Novotný’s strong showing in his first NHL training camp raises an interesting question: Should he play in the AHL this season?
Novotný is eligible for the AHL
In case you missed it, Postmedia’s Patrick Johnston reported this week that Novotný is eligible to play in the American Hockey League this season. As Johnston explains, the big reason for this is that Novotný is technically on loan to the OHL’s Peterborough Petes from his pro team in Czechia, with whom he signed a pro contract. Here is some of what Johnston wrote:
“…it all has to do with an age eligibility rule change that the NHL and the Canadian Hockey League have agreed to, but also because of how Novotny came to North America in the first place: he was still actually under contract with his Czech club and only lent to the OHL’s Peterborough Petes.
Remember Nick Jensen, the Danish forward the Canucks drafted from the OHL but who the Canucks are able to reassign as they pleased in his post draft years? Novotny is in the exact same situation as the long-ago Canucks first-rounder: Novotny had actually signed a pro contract with his Czech team Mountfield and was thus on a loan to the Petes last season…
And so although his draft listing said the Canucks picked the powerful winger from the OHL this summer, technically he was selected from Czechia and thus isn’t covered at all by the NHL-CHL agreement, which itself has been modified from how it used to operate.”
So Novotný and Cootes can both play in the AHL, and we expect almost for certain that Cootes will play most of his games in 2026-27 in the AHL (thanks to this being year one of a new rule allowing teams to select one 19-year-old CHL player to play in the AHL). But should Novotný join him?
Where’s the best place for Novotný?
Novotný’s “pro-ready frame” and elite shot suggest he could dominate the Ontario Hockey League as a 19-year-old. Last season, his first in the OHL, Novotný led the Peterborough Petes in both goals scored and total points. Through 58 games, Novotný tallied 34 goals and 31 assists for 65 total points. Being above a point-per-game in his draft year makes us think that if he were to go back to the OHL again for this upcoming season, he’d once again put up a ton of points, and that the quality of competition wouldn’t be much of a challenge for him.
Whereas if he were to go to the AHL, it would be an obvious step up in terms of quality of competition for Novotný. The risk there is, of course, that it’s too much too soon and that the skilled and confident Novotný loses sight of what makes him a special player while trying to keep up in a tougher league.
Essentially, this comes down to your philosophy on player development. Is it better for a 19-year-old skilled first-round pick to go score a ton of points in junior, or develop the habits and get a taste for the next level by making the jump to the AHL?
It’s an interesting question to ponder.
Just a few years ago, the obvious (and in most cases the only) answer was for a skilled first-rounder selected from major junior to go back to his junior team for his D+1 season, because that was really the only option available. But with the new rules surrounding CHL players’ NCAA eligibility, we are seeing more and more young CHL players choose college hockey for a higher level of competition in their D+1 seasons.
The number of players who played in the CHL last season, were drafted this past offseason, and are headed to college hockey for 2026-27 is too large to list out. But for Novotný, let’s use Porter Martone as an example of a player who put up a ton of points in Junior, then went to the NCAA to take the next step in his development. And yes, we understand that Martone put up more points than Novotný in junior and was a top-10 pick instead of a top-25 pick. The point here is about player development.
Martone, whom the Philadelphia Flyers selected sixth overall in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, put up 37 goals and 61 assists in 57 OHL games during his draft year. For his D+1 season, Martone attended Michigan State University, where he again produced points, but benefited greatly from the increased competition of college hockey.
“Thinking back to last development camp and just trying to make a decision about what I was going to do and what was going to help me for my hockey career,” Martone said recently. “Making the decision to go to college and go to Michigan State, I look back, and I think that’s the best decision that I ever made about going there to Michigan State. I have a ton of thanks to Adam Nightingale and the whole staff there. They did a tremendous job developing me.
“I think I just really found my identity as a player, and who I need to be to be successful. Coach Nightingale really forced on me to play below the hash marks, play in front of the net. I think another thing he told me when I got there was if I wanted to play at the NHL level you got to play at a faster pace, you have to get faster. That’s something that I really worked on there, the college game is a lot faster than in junior, so just kind of get that transition to the next step from junior to the NHL was college which was a perfect stepping stone.”
After tallying 50 points in 35 NCAA games, Martone turned pro at the end of last season, putting up 10 points in his first nine NHL games with the Flyers. The Canucks would certainly love to experience a similar development story with Novotný.
But the NCAA isn’t as tough a league as the AHL, where Novotný would play against grown men instead of college players like Martone did.
The Canucks’ new management group have been preaching patience since they took over, and you have to wonder if Ryan Johnson’s anti-yo-yoing philosophy — which discourages graduating young AHL players to the NHL too soon and avoiding numerous demotions and recalls — could apply here as well.
Perhaps the Canucks will decide that sending Novotný back to Peterborough is the safest and most effective route for his long-term development. While the AHL offers a head start on the pro game, another season in major junior allows a 19-year-old top prospect to dominate his peers, refine his offensive toolkit, and build ultimate confidence as a big-minute go-to star player — benefits that can be lost when a teenager is thrown straight into the grinding environment of professional hockey. First-round picks like Wyatt Johnston and Easton Cowan returned to their CHL clubs for their D+1 seasons, and that certainly didn’t seem to hurt their development.
So what do you think, Canucks fans? Where’s the best place for Adam Novotný to play in 2026-27? Let us know in the comments section below!
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