Top NHL Draft prospect hit with one of the weirdest Combine questions ever!

It didn’t take long for the NHL Draft Combine to produce its first viral moment. And this one is already making the rounds.

Top 2026 NHL Draft prospect Caleb Malhotra says he was asked one of the strangest interview questions he’s ever heard during a team meeting in Buffalo, and it has nothing to do with hockey systems, skating ability, or even his offensive upside.

According to Malhotra, a team posed a hypothetical scenario that immediately raised eyebrows.

“If you were on a desert island with no fresh water for a day, but the person next to you had a water bottle, would you kill that person for their water bottle?”

The 18-year-old centre described the question as completely unexpected, adding another surreal layer to the already high-pressure Combine interview process.

Malhotra is one of the most highly regarded two-way forwards in the 2026 draft class. The centre from the Brantford Bulldogs has drawn significant praise for his game, defensive reliability, and high hockey IQ, making him a potential top-10 selection heading into draft season.

He is also the son of former NHL forward Manny Malhotra, who played 16 seasons and nearly 1,000 games in the league and now serves behind the bench with the Vancouver Canucks, who will pick third in this Draft.

Malhotra’s stock surged after a standout rookie campaign in the OHL, where he recorded 84 points (29 goals, 55 assists) in 67 games, establishing himself as one of the most complete young forwards available in the class.

Gavin McKenna is likely to go first overall and become a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

While teams often use Combine interviews to test personality, decision-making, and mental processing under pressure, this particular question has already become one of the more unusual examples to surface from the pre-draft process. And it won’t be forgotten anytime soon.