Who Is Manny Malhotra? The New Vancouver Canucks Head Coach And 23rd In Franchise History
He won a Calder Cup with Abbotsford in 2025, grew up watching his father emigrate from Punjab to become a research chemist in Canada, and on Monday night became the first head coach of South Asian descent in NHL history.
The Vancouver Canucks did not have to look far for their next head coach. General manager Ryan Johnson announced Monday night that Manny Malhotra had been named the 23rd bench boss in franchise history, promoting him directly from his role with the AHL's Abbotsford Canucks. The hire reunites Malhotra with former Canucks teammates Daniel and Henrik Sedin, who were appointed co-presidents of hockey operations last month as part of the organisation's sweeping overhaul following a last-place finish in 2025-26.
Johnson kept his reasoning simple. "Manny and I have been in the battle together before, so I know firsthand what a good teacher, leader and quality person he is. He loves the game and getting to know what makes his players tick and I am very confident Manny will help us ice a competitive and hard-working team that our fans will be proud of."
The Playing Career That Started Everything
Born in Mississauga, Ontario on May 18, 1980, Malhotra is the son of a Punjabi father who emigrated from India and worked as a research chemist in Canada, and a French-Canadian mother. He was selected seventh overall by the New York Rangers in the 1998 NHL Draft and went on to play 991 regular-season games across 16 seasons with the Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks and Carolina Hurricanes before retiring in 2015. He played 159 of those games in Vancouver across three seasons from 2011 to 2014, winning two faceoffs for every one he lost and earning a reputation as one of the best defensive centres of his generation.
The Coaching Path to the NHL
Malhotra returned to Vancouver in 2016 as a development coach, moved to assistant coach under Travis Green from 2017 to 2020, and then spent four seasons as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs before coming back to the Canucks organisation in 2024 to take over the Abbotsford Canucks. In his first season there he guided the team to the Calder Cup championship, the AHL's first title in franchise history.
He inherits a Canucks team that went 25-49-8 in 2025-26, finished last in the league, and holds the third overall pick at the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo. The rebuild starts now.