Malhotra’s detail-oriented style will benefit Canucks

The new regime of the Vancouver Canucks, led by co-presidents Henrik and Daniel Sedin and general manager Ryan Johnson, have made their first major decision by hiring Manny Malhotra to be the franchise’s 23rd head coach. Malhotra should be a familiar character for Canucks fans, as he spent three seasons in Vancouver as a player during the team’s Sedin-era glory days of the early 2010s.

Malhotra, 46, has spent the last two seasons as the head coach for Vancouver’s AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks, and led them to a Calder Cup championship in 2025. He’ll now step into the head job at the NHL level and look to help the Canucks recover from their dreadful 2025-26 campaign.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed how Malhotra could be the right fit as the Canucks’ head coach.

Tyler Yaremchuk: This is a marriage that makes tons of sense on a whole bunch of levels here, Hutts. One, Ryan Johnson is the new GM in Vancouver, and Johnson and Malhotra were the minds behind the Calder Cup championship for Vancouver’s AHL team down in Abbotsford a couple of years ago, where Malhotra spent the last two seasons as a head coach there. Also, remember, the Sedins are running the ship now in Vancouver, and they were obviously teammates with Manny Malhotra, so this makes sense on a whole bunch of levels here, Hutts.

Carter Hutton: I think the alignment of RJ and him is important. They have the same goals, they have the same ideas when they talk about leadership and culture and running the team in an organization that seems a little bit discombobulated in the last few years. I think that’s an important factor, and he has that built relationship. The other thing, for me, is he has won a championship with some of these guys, I think that’s important.

The big takeaway for me is he’s a 16-year NHL veteran and he played 991 games, but he wasn’t a big-time point production guy. In my opinion, when I look at players like that, I think about how detail-oriented you have to be to survive in the NHL if you’re not going to be a point guy. That’s an important factor, which is his game when he played and the way he coaches is based on details. That’s something Vancouver has been missing, so I think that’s a big storyline.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…