Manny Malhotra prepares for brand spanking new problem behind Canucks bench

EDMONTON — Manny Malhotra could be forgiven for not remembering a lot about his first National Hockey League sport as a participant, as a result of it adopted the reminiscence that dominates from that New York Rangers coaching camp 28 years in the past. 

“Gretz took me out to dinner on Day 1 or 2 of training camp,” Malhotra recalled for Sportsnet in an interview final week. “I don’t think I said a word the whole evening other than to answer his questions. But I was just so excited, like, ‘I’m sitting at dinner with Wayne Gretzky.’ I was in awe of him. My first year was Gretz’s last, and just being in the same room as Wayne, sitting beside him, I was just starstruck and not really processing everything that was going on around me.”

Malhotra was an 18-year-old draft choose from Toronto, chosen seventh total by the Rangers in 1998 and projected to be a star first-line centre. Gretzky was 37 and, effectively, the best who ever performed, and about to start out his ultimate season within the NHL earlier than retiring within the spring of ’99.

“Training camp was in Vermont, and I was alone in my hotel room,” Malhotra defined when pressed for particulars about dinner with Wayne. “My roommate had gone out with among the older guys, however he was a large Gretzky fan. That’s all we talked about. He wished to speak to Gretz, simply wished to be round him. I received a name in my resort room, and I picked up. ‘Hi, is Manny there?’ And I knew immediately who it was. ‘Hey, Manny, it’s Wayne. You want to go to dinner tonight?’ 

“Uh, yep. He said, ‘Just grab your roommate and meet me in the lobby at 6.’ But my roommate was gone all afternoon, so he didn’t get a chance to go. So I called a guy that I knew from playing (in the Ontario Hockey League), Wes Jarvis. I said, ‘Jarvey, what are you doing for dinner? You want to go to dinner with Gretz? He’s like, ‘Shut up!’ I said, ‘No, for real. He just invited me and my roommate, but my roommate’s not here. So if you want to go, we can go.’ So we went to dinner with Gretz.”

About a month later, Malhotra performed his first NHL sport, logging 17 minutes in a 7-1 highway loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

The roommate who missed out on dinner was Andrew Proskurnicki, a rugged defenceman from Hamilton who had been an eighth-round choose of the Rangers in 1996 and whose skilled profession consisted of 87 video games within the minors.

A second-round Rangers choose in 1997, Jarvis break up three years between the American and East Coast Leagues, then performed 4 seasons in France and Britain.

Malhotra went on to play 991 NHL video games for seven groups, extending his profession to 17 seasons after former Vancouver common supervisor Mike Gillis, fearful for his participant’s well-being after Malhotra suffered a grotesque eye damage in 2011, advised him 9 video games into the 2012-13 season that he would now not be allowed to play for the Canucks.

Malhotra and his spouse, Joann, wept on the information.

Malhotra by no means met the lofty projections connected to him as a seventh-overall draft choose, however he did construct a noble profession as a reliable matchup centre valued for his hockey IQ, tradecraft and character. 

All of this was a part of the inspiration on which Malhotra, 46, has constructed a training profession that has him Tuesday night time behind the guests’ bench in Edmonton, working his first sport as an NHL head coach for a similar Canucks group that attempted to finish his profession as a participant.

He’l be up in opposition to the Oilers, who as soon as belonged to Gretzky however are actually Connor McDavid’s group.

“No, that wasn’t on the radar,” Malhotra mentioned when requested if he might have envisioned in 2012 finally teaching the Canucks. “I was definitely jaded. Having something taken away from you is never an easy thing. But the fact that I continued my career after that (with seasons in Carolina and Montreal), you know, that for me was the determination of … just focusing on what I needed to do to continue to play. And as far as, in your words, poisoning my desire to want to be a coach, I always knew towards the end of my career that I really enjoyed the teaching part of it. So it was definitely something that I wanted to continue.”

Malhotra and his newly shaped teaching employees picked their first group on Monday — 23 gamers who’re broadly anticipated to complete close to the underside of the league once more after final season’s last-place end tilted the Canucks right into a rebuild and regime change.

Malhotra and new common supervisor Ryan Johnson have properly averted setting aggressive targets — or a timeline for the rebuild — however have vowed the group will probably be nearer, higher structured and tougher to play in opposition to this season.

“First and foremost, for us, it’s about the energy that we bring to the game and the tenacity that we play with,” Malhotra advised reporters on Monday. “And within the game, we realize structurally there’s going to be breakdowns, there’s going to be mistakes made on the ice. But I never want those mistakes to be for lack of effort. We want our team committed to being hard to play against, being heavy in puck battles, and … willing to get to net fronts. For us, it’s about the effort that we put in every day.”

This is the beginning of the Canucks’ most formidable rebuild since they joined the NHL in 1970.

“There’s an understanding of what comes with being in a Canadian market,” Malhotra mentioned in his interview with Sportsnet. “Knowing the fan base … they want to be able to have pride in the way we play and the on-ice product. I’m not saying that shapes what we’re trying to do, but there’s an understanding that the quality of hockey needs to improve, the level of intensity needs to improve. But before we get to the wins and losses and wanting to get to where we want, it’s about playing like a team that the fans can be proud of.”

The most notable factor concerning the Canucks throughout coaching camp and the pre-season was the palpable vitality and pleasure emanating from the group. 

As goalie Kevin Lankinen advised us Saturday night time, after Vancouver’s solely pre-season win: “We have a good chemistry, a good group of guys here. Of course … it’s going to be a roller-coaster like any other year. But the most important thing is we’re pulling the same rope. Everybody’s on board, and we’re having fun doing it.”

Music to the ears of the rebuild architects.

As Canucks gamers, Malhotra primarily changed Johnson in 2010 as a veteran-leader sort of centre who killed penalties, gained faceoffs, might defend in opposition to the opposition’s greatest gamers and was a superb teammate.

By 2016, Johnson was working within the Canucks’ player-development division when the group, beneath GM Jim Benning, employed Malhotra as a expertise and improvement coach. Malhotra quickly grew to become a full-time teaching assistant on Travis Green’s employees, which earned him an elevated teaching function with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 4 seasons.

After Johnson grew to become the Canucks’ assistant GM, in control of their American Hockey League group, he focused and recruited Malhotra in 2024 to be the pinnacle coach of the Abbotsford Canucks.

Under Johnson and Malhotra, Abbotsford gained the Canucks franchise’s first Calder Cup of their preliminary season. When new co-presidents Henrik and Daniel Sedin promoted Johnson to NHL GM in May, Johnson named Malhotra his head coach.

“Manny has only been a head coach for two seasons in the American Hockey League,” Johnson mentioned Monday. “But I do not see that as inexperienced. He’s received a life filled with expertise, but additionally a set of foundations and values that make him extraordinarily profitable on this place.

“His experience in the game, both as a player and as an assistant coach, obviously set him up to know what he wants to be as a head coach. And apart from that experience, he’s an extremely high-quality human being. He knows how to walk the line of being relatable and communicating (with players), but at the same time holding a level of accountability within that.”

Malhotra doesn’t bear in mind a lot about his first sport as an NHL participant, and mentioned he isn’t particularly nervous about his first sport as an NHL head coach.

“As a player, I felt like you have an opportunity to impact the game,” Malhotra defined. “Your bodily play on the ice, you are going to be touching the puck, you are going to be doing issues on the ice that affect the sport. As a coach, you need issues to go effectively, and you propose. You hope that the fellows have picked up on what you are speaking about, and so they’re studying what you need them to be taught. But aside from that, aside from encouraging or correcting at any time when I can, there isn’t any precise affect on the sport. I’m depending on everyone else. So it is a totally different sort of nervousness.

“But just like a hockey player, (coaching) is taking the next step and growing and wanting to do the next thing and take on the next responsibility. I’m very cognizant of the fact that I’m fortunate to be one of only 32 (NHL head coaches). It’s not lost on me. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to work with the people that I’m working with. But when I do look at the macro picture, I can’t do this without my family’s blessing, right? My wife’s blessing, like, ‘Hey, you’re going to chase the dream, let’s go.’ We were all in it together. So there’s definitely an acknowledgement that there are people around me that are helping me and allowing me to do this. Day to day, there’s definitely been moments where I’ve said, ‘Holy smokes, I’m coaching in the National Hockey League.’”