Canucks General Manager Ryan Johnson cited "consistency" as one of the qualities that played into the hiring of new head coach Manny Malhotra.
It shouldn’t come to anyone’s surprise that Manny Malhotra will be the 23rd head coach in Vancouver Canucks franchise history.
While this wasn’t particularly a move that was long in the making, it certainly felt that way when the Canucks first brought Malhotra back into the organization in 2024–25.
It felt that way when the Canucks parted ways with former head coach Rick Tocchet in the spring of 2025, during which Malhotra guided the Abbotsford Canucks to their first Calder Cup in franchise history.
It felt that way on May 19, when Vancouver fired former head coach Adam Foote after only one season.
Now, as the Canucks prepare to embark on what has the potential to be some of their most difficult years left, Canucks General Manager Ryan Johnson knows that Malhotra is the guy that the team wants leading them through the mud.
It’s something he says he knew long before Malhotra was officially hired at the beginning of this week.
“My initial [...] [conversation] was to make sure I communicated the alignment, the vision, very clearly, to have a discussion with Manny, so that Manny was able to say, ‘yes, this is where I want to be, and, and who I want to do it with,’” Johnson said in a media availability regarding the hiring process on Tuesday morning.
Familiarity with the organization aside, there are a lot of qualities about Malhotra’s coaching that lend themselves well to a rebuilding team like the Canucks. The former Canuck has had his hand in the development side of hockey for a good chunk of his NHL and AHL coaching career — and that Calder Cup win last year is a big indicator of that. While it’s easy to point to last year’s AHL championship as a sign of his talents, Johnson insists that it was his consistency this season that fully sold him.
“It was moments throughout this past season, that we navigated injuries and adversity, and never really saw a team together, but when I saw Manny and his staff be able to deliver that consistency that was exactly the same as it was through a championship season, that’s where I felt, into a rebuild, and where you’re going to have some adversity with some young players that need consistency and support, that coming into this [...] that he was the guy I needed to have a real good conversation with to get to this point, where we are today.”
Another quality of Malhotra’s that Johnson praised is how he is able to get people within the system to buy-in — whether that’s playing a certain way or approaching things with a specific mindset.
“Manny is very good at building his staff and his staff belief, delivering exactly what he wants and what he wants to feel like, but then empowering them to bring that to the table, and I think that our staff in Abbotsford — we were one, we were connected, everybody had a voice, everybody had an opinion.
“You talk to any of the staff or trainers or people around, the personal connection is there, but the respect for the work and what you have to have to do is there, and that’s what I expect him to bring to Vancouver as we try to slowly change this environment.”
Abbotsford head coach Manny Malhotra watches his team from the bench during the first period of their game at Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. © Andy Abeyta/The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn ImagesIt’s these types of things that Johnson believes Malhotra can bring to a Canucks team that has struggled from a culture standpoint throughout the past few seasons.
“As I’ve said, it’s not the 7:00 pms on Friday nights — it’s the 8:00 ams on Monday, and the focus and attention on that,” Johnson explained. “We’re going to ask these players to get uncomfortable at 8:00 ams, and that the wins and losses, or all that other stuff, will take care of itself. The judge, not just on Manny, but on myself, will be the ability to get the players that are here to understand that and deliver it, and the players that don’t will make it very clear that they’re not interested to be here, and we will bring in players that we know are ready to change that first, and then we eventually we will have the patience within the wins and losses, but with the structure, how we’re going to treat each other, and then the competitiveness that we will expect at 8:00 am — that will bleed into the to the 7:00 pms, and slowly in time the results will come.”
Malhotra joins a Canucks staff that features plenty of team alumni, from co-Presidents of Hockey Operations Daniel and Henrik Sedin, to Johnson himself, the team is taking on a bit of a nostalgic feeling to it that the GM says isn’t just “some buddies getting together.
“That’s not the case here. This is more of a mission, something that we see as an amazing opportunity to change a franchise, to build it the right way, to get it sustainable.”
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