Many American Hockey League (AHL) coaches hope to get their shot at becoming an NHL head coach. For Abbotsford Canucks bench boss Manny Malhotra, that time could come soon. Although this season did not turn out how Abbotsford wanted, Malhotra has proven to be a great minor league coach and won a Calder Cup Championship in his first season as a pro hockey head coach. Both his NHL and AHL coaching experiences should be enough to get him on the radar of NHL clubs looking to hire a new head coach this offseason.
Malhotra’s History
Malhotra has a long history of coaching at both the NHL and AHL levels. Outside of being a veteran NHL player, his coaching resume speaks for itself. Malhotra was an assistant coach in the NHL from 2017 to 2024 with the Canucks and the Toronto Maple Leafs. In those seven years, was able to interact with some great players and had talents such as Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and Mitch Marner under his watch in Toronto and a young Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser under his watch in Vancouver.
Malhotra has a history of running both the power play and the penalty kill at the NHL level, as he did both during his time with the Maple Leafs. A head coach’s job is to oversee all aspects and having that experience on both the offensive and defensive sides of the puck makes Malhotra a very good candidate for an NHL head coaching job. Add in the fact he has a championship-winning pedigree in the AHL, and many teams would love to have someone like that lead their team.
Is Vancouver an Option?
There is a world where Malhotra becomes an NHL head coach and stays in Vancouver. There is speculation that current head coach Adam Foote could be fired at the end of this season, as the Canucks have done nothing but underperform during his tenure. Nothing has come out from the Canucks on whether they are looking for a new coach, but with their unexpectedly-awful season, a change behind their bench could be what is needed to re-ignite the team. Who better to fill in a vacancy like that than someone who has been in the Canucks system for the majority of his pro hockey coaching career — and even playing career — like Malhotra?
Malhotra knows everything about the Canucks system as he has been a part of the organization dating back to the 2011 season as a player. His first coaching gig in the NHL was with Vancouver back in 2016, when he was a development coach and eventually became an assistant coach the next season. After his time in Toronto, he was given the chance to be a head coach in Abbotsford in 2024 and couldn’t say no to returning to the Canucks organization. He seems like a guy who loves the Canucks organization and wants to help it at every turn. If the Canucks are looking to move on from Foote, Malhotra should be a prime candidate to take over for him.
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The team will never find a coaching candidate who has as much history with the organization as he does. Any available candidates for this job will have to learn about the team and the players, whereas Malhotra won’t because he was just a part of the team back in 2019 and is currently their AHL team’s coach. Also, since the Canucks will probably be getting younger with many of their drafted players looking to make the new jump to the NHL, who better to coach them than the person they just had as their AHL bench boss?
Malhotra has a lot of coaching experience at both the NHL and AHL levels, and his winning resume in both should get him head coaching interviews this summer. If Vancouver is one of those teams looking for a new coach come season’s end, he should be one of their top candidates and should seriously consider hiring him before someone else does.
