2026 NHL Mock Draft Puts Caleb Malhotra in Range for Chicago, While Brady Tkachuk Trade Shifts the Top 10

The 2026 NHL draft picture is beginning to take shape in mock form, and one current projection links the Chicago Blackhawks’ spot near the top with Caleb Malhotra. Yahoo Sports’ version of the opening rounds organizes the top 16 as if Malhotra becomes available to Chicago at the draft, and it also treats the early-order landscape as fluid because of a recent trade involving Brady Tkachuk.

In the mock draft setup, Yahoo Sports points to “some shakeup in the top 10” after the Brady Tkachuk trade to the Florida Panthers. The key distinction for Chicago is that the model does not move the Blackhawks’ fourth overall selection, meaning the draft order change is depicted as affecting other teams more than Chicago’s slot.

That matters because a team picking in the top five can still be forced to rethink its draft board if a prominent target disappears, falls further than expected, or becomes less appealing after other teams’ selections. In this case, the Yahoo mock draft suggests Chicago can stay focused on Malhotra if he is still available when its turn arrives.

The story is, by construction, hypothetical. Mock drafts do not bind player availability, and early order shifts can create second- and third-order effects that are hard to predict this far out. The most that can be taken from the Yahoo framework is the draft-day plausibility that Malhotra lines up with Chicago’s pick, while the Tkachuk deal is portrayed as changing the order ahead of other teams.

For the Blackhawks, the practical takeaway is not the exact pick-by-pick list, but the underlying team-building question it represents. Chicago’s position in the top four is valuable because it can be used to add a high-impact prospect in a range where talent concentration is typically strongest. If Malhotra is indeed viewed as a fit, the mock implies that Chicago would not have to abandon its target simply because of the Florida trade’s ripple effects.

From a league-wide perspective, the Yahoo Sports framing reinforces how quickly one offseason deal can alter draft discussions even for teams not directly involved. If the top 10 changes in a way that affects which players are likely to be gone, teams outside the top five may have to adjust their priorities toward the next tier of prospects or toward different positional needs.

What to watch next is whether any official confirmation, updated scouting consensus, or draft-eligibility clarification changes Malhotra’s projection. Since the current connection is rooted in a mock draft scenario, the next meaningful report would be additional, independent projections that converge on Malhotra’s likely range and Chicago’s target list heading into the 2026 draft. Until then, this remains a useful guide to how one plausible draft board could play out for the Blackhawks rather than a guarantee of outcomes.