Malhotra prepares for NHL coaching debut as Canucks open in Edmonton
Vancouver’s new coach makes his regular-season debut Tuesday against the Oilers after two seasons leading the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks.
Manny Malhotra is set to coach his first NHL regular-season game Tuesday when the Vancouver Canucks open in Edmonton against the Oilers at 7 p.m. PT, the club confirmed in its game preview.
After Vancouver’s comeback win over Seattle in its pre-season finale, Malhotra said the team had begun to find its rhythm but needed sharper execution with the games now counting. “Now that it’s for real, obviously it’s going to jack up the intensity once again,” he told the club Monday.
Malhotra, 46, was hired in June after two seasons as head coach of the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. Abbotsford won the Calder Cup in his first season behind that bench in 2024-25. He takes over a Vancouver club that finished last in the NHL last season.
The assignment also returns Malhotra to a franchise where he played before a serious eye injury in 2011 disrupted his career. Vancouver later told him he would not play for the club again, but he went on to play for Carolina and Montreal and finished with 991 NHL games. Asked by Sportsnet whether he could have imagined this coaching role at the time, he said, “No, that wasn't on the radar.”
