New Canucks coach Manny Malhotra opens up about possibly coaching his son
There’s no tougher job than being a parent.
Unless, alongside being a parent, you’re also your kids’ boss at the workplace.
At least most of those situations are public-facing, unlike the head coaching job that Manny Malhotra just accepted with the Vancouver Canucks.
This possibility has been brewing for months as the Canucks, who employed Manny as AHL head coach, have heavily scouted his son, Caleb, throughout his stellar OHL season.
It presents a dynamic that would be a first for the Canucks. In fact, it’s only happened eight times in NHL history, twice in the past 40 years, and just once in the 21st century.
“I fully understand the story there, and I understand the positives and negatives of it,” Malhotra told reporters at his introductory press conference.
“With so many things I’ve learned, it’s a bit of a fool’s errand to plan out things that quite haven’t happened yet. If that situation were to happen, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
However, if it were to happen, Malhotra shed light on a family rule that could help him navigate the challenge.
“We’ve had a very clear understanding in my household that first and foremost, I am Dad, who also happens to be a professional hockey coach.”
“So, when we are talking about hockey, there’s a decision by my kids if they want to talk to Dad or coach. We will continue to have that rule in my house, and it’s served us well as a family.”
Caleb gave his take on that dynamic earlier this week during the NHL combine.
“I kind of separate dad and coach,” Caleb told NHL.com. “I talk to dad, but I’ll talk to coach a lot about different things in my game, whether it’s about the team or just specific things in my game.”
It’s one thing to practice that dynamic on phone calls from different cities. However, pulling that off in an NHL locker room presents a different challenge.
But if Manny and Caleb are presented with this scenario, at least they have a strategy to make it work.
“I would treat him just as any other player,” Manny said when asked about potentially coaching his son in Vancouver. “I know people would say, ‘well, you can’t because it’s your son,’ and I do understand the challenges there.”
“Going back to that rule of: ‘Do you want to talk to Dad or do you want to talk to coach,’ when Caleb brings up hockey to me, he always wants to talk to coach,” Manny said. ‘I’ve seen his growth over the last couple years, what they’ve done in Brantford and the evolution of his game.”
“I think he would have the wherewithal and the ability to separate the two at the next level.”
While ex-Winnipeg Jets coach Dave Lowry spoke about the challenges of coaching his son, Adam, at the NHL level, he did hint that the dynamic can work.
āI think the biggest compliment we got from a lot of the players is that they didnāt even know I had a kid on the team,” Lowry said back in 2022. “That was one of the things that you had to give up.ā
However, based on Lowry’s comments, Manny’s ideology of being a dad first and foremost would be put to the test if he unites with his son in Vancouver.