Manny Malhotra named Head Coach of the Canucks

Less than one month after the promotions of the Sedin twins and Ryan Johnson as the new Canucks front office, Manny Malhotra has been promoted to bench boss of the Vancouver Canucks. 

For the last two seasons Malhotra has been the head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, compiling a 72-61-5 record in the regular season, most notably winning The Calder Cup in 2025, and he has coached many of the Canucks promising young players, such as Jonathan Lekkerimäki and Linus Karlsson. 

Many believed that Malhotra had the inside track on the Canucks head coaching job given the promotions of the Sedin twins and Ryan Johnson, who have all had their hand in the Canucks current development pipeline. 

Malhotra has wealth of experience in hockey, playing in the NHL from the 1998-1999 season until the 2014-2015 season, including three on the Canucks. He was known as an elite defensive centre who excelled at face-offs, penalty killing and shutting down opponents, all of which are extremely valuable in terms of strategic hockey knowledge and tactics. 

Post playing career, Malhotra joined the Canucks as a development coach in 2016, was an assistant coach for the Canucks from 2017-2020, and was an assistant coach for the Maple Leafs from 2020-2024 before becoming the head coach of Abbotsford. 

An interesting caveat in all of this is the fact that Manny’s son, Caleb, is projected to go as a top-five pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, and is even projected to go as high as third overall, where the Canucks are currently selecting. 

With that in mind, and the front office and head coach in place, the attention will now turn to the June 26th NHL Entry Draft where the Canucks will finally answer the question of who they will be selecting.