Malhotra previews new Canucks defensive system: 'Structured and aggressive'
The Vancouver Canucks are entering the 2026-27 season with a refreshed philosophy.
After years of organizational dysfunction, there finally appears to be a coherent plan in place, along with alignment from top to bottom.
New head coach Manny Malhotra will play a major part in getting the rebuild on track. He has acknowledged that the team likely won’t win a lot of games next season, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t something to play for.
“There’s a very big difference between losing games, which is inevitable; every team is going to do it, and playing losing hockey,” Malhotra told reporters at Rogers Arena on Wednesday morning. “The measure of our group will be on playing the right way, doing the things that we’re talking about, having details to your game, which is going to give us an opportunity to win… That’s where the pride or joy will come from.”
Malhotra gave a preview of the team’s new defensive system, which was in need of an overhaul after the Adam Foote experience. No team gave up more goals against last season than Vancouver, who surrendered 3.83 goals per game. The Canucks also ranked near the bottom of the league in shots against (29.8), finishing fourth worst.
Malhotra said the Canucks would rely on “structure” and “being in the right place at the right time.”
But don’t expect the team to sit back in a defensive shell.
“For me, playing good defence doesn’t mean sitting on the inside and soaking shots all night long,” said Malhotra. “In this NHL, if you give teams time and space, they’re going to take it, and it’s going to go badly for you… If you look at all the successful teams in the league, defensively, how they play, it’s ultra-aggressive; they take time and space away quickly. They play layered, so there’s constant support, and redundancy so guys don’t get exposed if there is a breakdown. It’s going to revolve around being structured and aggressive.”
“No hall passes”
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The Canucks left for Penticton on Wednesday afternoon in advance of on-ice sessions at the South Okanagan Events Centre on Thursday. That’s where the teaching begins, both in terms of new systems play and practice habits.
“The expectation for our group is standardized. The way you show up to the rink, the way you practice, the intensity at which you practice. That’s all standardized. There’s no hall passes for anybody.”
Time is of the essence, as training camp and preseason are shorter this year. The team will get just two practice days before their first preseason game in Seattle on Saturday — one fewer day than last year. The preseason schedule is also just four games in length, down from six.
“It’s a very short camp, so we’re going to have to make the most of the time that we have on the ice to balance the teaching and the intensity of the way we want practices to be,” Malhotra said.
“For us, the ground-level stuff, the foundational pieces that we need to put in place, are going to be prioritized in camp. And obviously, wanting to be good defensively, spending less time in our zone is going to be a priority for us. But as a coach, the plan is we have to take each step as it comes […] We’re not cutting corners; we’re not skipping the line. We have to have these foundational pieces in place before we can start to talk about improving and getting the wins and advancing this team to where we want to get to.”
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