It may not be much fun up in Vancouver Canucks-land lately, with the big club on the losing end of 12 of their last 13 games. But most Canucks fans are keeping an eye on the future these days, and boy, did two Canucks prospects impress over the weekend.

Both of the Canucks’ first-round picks in the 2026 NHL Draft sent their teams home with overtime wins over the weekend.

The Canucks’ third-overall pick, Caleb Malhotra and his Boston University Terriers welcomed the University of Maine to town for a back-to-back weekend set. On Friday, the Terriers won in a landslide.

Malhotra picked up the primary assist on Viktor Nörringer’s power play marker early in the first period. Playing the right half-wall, Malhotra lasered a one-touch pass through traffic to Nörringer in the left faceoff dot, who fired a one-timer into the back of the net. This put the Terriers up 4-0 less than five minutes in, en route to an easy 7-2 final.

That was Malhotra’s only point on the night, but he came up in a big way in Game 2.

Saturday night was a much slower contest. Maine sought revenge for the blowout loss the night before, scoring a pair of first-period goals. They held this two-goal lead for the entire second period and nearly seven minutes into the third. But then the Terriers started coming.

St. Louis Blues 2026 first-round pick Tynan Lawrence got the Terriers on the board with a power play tally, and later tied the game with just over two minutes to go. To this point, Malhotra had not factored into the scoring, but it didn’t take long into overtime for him to change that.

Receiving the pass from Jack Harvey, Malhotra entered Maine’s zone with speed. He put on the brakes at the top of the right circle, deked to the inside, where he was met by another Maine player. Malhotra deked back to the outside, opening up plenty of space to simmer the puck, load up a shot, pick his corner, and fire the winner by the goaltender to seal the win for his Terriers.

That stick twirl, followed by the bow-and-arrow celebration before he jumped and hugged his teammates, was exciting to watch.

This was just the second goal of his NCAA career, and the first on a goaltender, but it extended his point streak to three games. It may have been a slow start, but the points are starting to come for Malhotra.

Adam Novotný saw what his future Canucks teammate did the night before and wanted to get in on the fun as well.

Novotný and his Peterborough Petes hit the road this weekend to face the Kingston Frontenacs and Niagara IceDogs. Friday was a slower night for Novotný. Offence was hard to come by for the Petes as a team, scoring just one goal on 31 shots – Novotný had three of them.

Sunday was a much better performance from both the Petes and Novotný.

The game against the IceDogs remained scoreless through the opening 20 minutes, before the Petes got on the board. The IceDogs would tie the game before the period was over, with the teams heading into the break tied at one.

Niagara scored less than two minutes into the third period, then Novotný joined the scoring. On a four-on-four situation, Novotný picked up the loose puck in the defensive zone and carried it up ice. Once the pressure caught up to him, Novotný sauces a pass to Cooper Dennis, who skates onto it, enters the offensive zone, and finds the short-side top corner to tie the game for the Petes.

The two teams traded goals in the final seven minutes to send this one to overtime. However, at the end of regulation, IceDog forward Reyth Smith received a match penalty for high-sticking, handing the Petes a power play for all five minutes of overtime.

It took until the final minute of the extra frame, but Novotný wasn’t going to let this massive advantage slip away.

After a Dennis wrist shot from the top of the right circle, Adam Levac grabbed the rebound and sent the puck back to Dennis at the top of the zone. Dennis fires the puck to Novotný, who corrals it, loads up, and rips it into the top right corner to give the Petes the victory.

With Sunday’s multi-point game, Novotný is up to nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points through 15 games this season. His 21 points have him 10th in league scoring.

Of course, other Canucks prospects in various leagues around the world also had productive weekends. You’ll have to wait until Tuesday for our Blackfish live show to get caught up on all things Canucks prospects!