The Vancouver Canucks had five players land on Corey Pronman’s latest U23 rankings for The Athletic, with two current blueliners and three prospects from the club’s 2026 draft class making the cut.
Pronman released his list Wednesday morning and laid out the idea behind it plainly: he was ranking the players he believes will have the best NHL careers, not who he’d want in a game tomorrow. He also noted that the exercise is meant to compare the last five age groups, since it mostly covers players from the 2022 through 2026 NHL Drafts.
To qualify, a player had to be 22 or younger as of Sept. 15, 2026.
The rankings were split into six tiers, from Tier 1, labeled “Elite NHL player,” down to Tier 6, “Middle of the lineup player.” The first four tiers included just 20 players total, while the other 136 were placed in the bottom two tiers.
For Vancouver, the highest-ranked name was Caleb Malhotra at No. 23 in Tier 5, where Pronman described him as “a very skilled center who can make a ton of creative plays.” Pronman added that Malhotra “is fast and attacks with pace,” “breaks down opponents one-on-one very well and is a great passer,” and projected him as “an all-around top-six center.”
Zeev Buium checked in at No. 27, also in Tier 5. Pronman called him “an extremely intelligent puck-mover who can run a power play like a top defenseman” and said he “makes high-end plays routinely and can break shifts open with his puck handling and passes.” He projected Buium as “a top-four defenseman who could be a PP1 type.”
Three more Canucks names landed in Tier 6. Tom Willander came in at No. 72, with Pronman pointing to his skating as the defining trait. He wrote that “Willander’s skating is his main asset” and projected him as “a steady two-way, second-pair defenseman.”
Brooks Rogowski landed at No. 108. Pronman said Rogowski’s size and mobility stand out, calling him “a huge center who moves very well for his size,” and projecting him as “a play-driving middle-six center.”
Adam Novotny was next at No. 130.
Pronman praised his burst and shot, saying “Novotný is a great skater” and that he “has a great shot and can score from the dots and in tight effectively.” He projected Novotny as “a top-six winger.”
A number of other Canucks U23 players were left off the 156-player list entirely, including Braeden Cootes, Elias Pettersson, Liam Öhgren, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Riley Patterson, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Sawyer Mynio, Aleksei Medvedev, Niklas Aaram-Olsen, and Anthony Romani.
Other Vancouver prospects who missed the list were Vilmer Alriksson, Dmitri Ivchenko, Ty Young, Gabe Chiarot, Basile Sansonnens, Lucian Bernat, Samuel Eriksson, Yaroslav Bryzgalov, Connor Davis, Kieren Dervin, Matthew Perkins, Matthew Lansing, Daimon Gardner, Parker Alcos, and Aiden Celebrini.
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