Kings take Caleb Malhotra and Keaton Verhoeff in 1st round

LA takes 1C and 1D with picks 3 and 6 in the 2026 Entry Draft

LOS ANGELES - The first round of the 2026 DCHL Entry draft is now in the books, and Kings' GM Kaylen Peterson has not been able to stop smiling. "We're ecstatic with today's result" GM Peterson said, "Like we said after our second pick, we had two names at the top of our list and we came away with both of them. We couldn't have asked for a better result today."

The names GM Peterson is referring to are that of Caleb Malhotra, LA's 1st pick (3rd overall) in the draft, and Keaton Verhoeff, LA's 2nd pick (6th overall) in the first round of the draft.

In Malhotra, the Kings get a player with elite hockey IQ, attention to detail, and ability to make an impact in every zone. He may not have started the season as a top-pick, but his offensive explosion towards the end of his OHL season and into the playoffs really elevated his draft stock. By the end of the season, Malhotra's combination of size, hockey IQ, two-way reliability, and steadily improving offensive creativity made him a consensus top-five prospect. Malhotra has a June birthday, meaning he is one of the youngest players in the draft and has plenty of runway left to improve on an already elite skill set. Malhotra's draft-year performance, combined with his 6'2" pro-ready frame and complete, translateable game made taking him a no-brainer for the Kings.

"Caleb wasn't at the top of our list," said GM Peterson, "we had him at #2. The more we spoke with other teams, though, the more we started to realize we could come away with both him and our #1 if we took Caleb first. We liked a lot of defencemen in this draft, but we only liked one forward, so it made sense for us to gamble to ensure we at least got the centre we think we can build a team around. Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg are going to be great players in this league, but our league tends to favour players with size, and when you're picking at this point in the draft you want to ensure you're taking someone who is going to have a huge impact on the game and tilt it in your favour. We think Caleb is that type of player."

In Verhoeff, the Kings get a huge right-handed defenceman with the traits and potential to be a true, all-situations #1 defender at the pro level. After a very successful rookie season in the WHL that saw him score 21 goals, Verhoeff spent his draft year as one of the youngest players in the NCAA where he more than held his own playing big minutes and quaterbacking the power play of a very good team at the University of North Dakota. Prior to the season, many in the scouting world felt Verhoeff had the potential to be the #1 pick in this draft. The Kings shared that opinion then, and kept that opinion over the course of the season. Verhoeff projects as the kind of right-shot defenseman every NHL team covets: big, mobile, intelligent, and dependable in every situation.

"For sure, Keaton was always our guy," GM Peterson explained. "I think people forget he scored 21 goals as a 16-year-old rookie in the WHL, and don't give his performance in the NCAA as the youngest player in the league, or at least youngest defenceman in the league, enough credit. He was selected to represent Canada as a 17-year-old at the World Junior Championships, which doesn't happen often. We're confident that he would have put up numbers similar to Chase Reid, Daxon Rudolph and Carson Carels if he would have played in the WHL for his draft year. The fact that he chose to play against bigger, stronger, more structured competition and still excelled speaks to the type of player we're getting. Again, we aren't saying the other top blue liners in this draft were bad players, they really aren't and we would have been ecstatic if the choice was between Reid or Carels and Rudolph at 6. But we think Keaton's decision to challenge himself and play against more mature competition separates him from the pack. We can't wait to get him to LA."

Along with their prized picks in the first round of the 2026 draft, the Kings added prospect goaltender Trey Augustine in a trade with the Washington Capitals for Kashawn Aitcheson and LA's third round pick in 2027. "We were pretty fortunate for the opportunity to pick up a quality prospect in goal like Trey," GM Peterson said of the trade. "We didn't love the price, we still don't, Kashawn (Aitcheson) is going to be a heck of a player in this league. I feel like I keep saying this though, you have to give up quality to get quality. For us, goaltending was an area of need, and Trey is the right age to grow and improve with the rest of our young core, so moving on from Aitcheson for a player like Trey made sense. We got plenty of looks at him as a teammate of Cayden (Lindstrom) at Michigan State, so we think we have a good idea of what we're getting and we're excited to make him a part of what we're building here. We wish Kashawn the best, and congratulate Washington on picking up a fantastic player and person, but we're also excited to bring Trey into our organization."

The additions of Malhotra, Verhoeff and Augustine virtually completes the elite young core Kings' GM Kaylen Peterson set out to create when he embarked on this rebuild. LA's future lineup now looks like this:

Anton Frondell (3OA '25) - Caleb Malhotra (3OA '26) - Beckett Sennecke (3OA '24)
Cayden Lindstrom (4OA '24) - Roger McQueen (10OA '25) - Brady Martin (5OA '25)
Dalibor Dvorsky (10OA '23)- Oliver Kapanen (64OA '21) - Nate Danielson (9OA '23)

Owen Power (1OA '21) - Keaton Verhoeff (9OA '26)
Oliver Bonk (22OA '23) - Simon Nemec (2OA '22)

Trey Augustine (41OA '23)

If everyone reaches their potential, the Kings have set themselves up to be a powerhouse in the league for years to come. At the very least, GM Peterson has made it an incredibly exciting time to be a Kings' fan.