Should Vancouver Canucks rethink promoting Malhotra if they draft his son?
The Malhotra clan is ready to infiltrate the NHL.
Abbotsford Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra seems destined to coach in the NHL after his admirable Calder Cup-winning performance last season.
Not to be outdone, his son, Caleb Malhotra, has rocketed up draft boards and is now in the conversation to be selected at third overall.
The rise of both Malhotras presents a potential dilemma for the Canucks.
If the Canucks decide to move on from current head coach Adam Foote after just one season, Manny Malhotra is arguably the leading candidate for the job.
Which is ironic, because if the Canucks fall in the draft lottery to third overall, which they have a 55.7 per cent chance of doing, there’s a growing suspicion that they’ll take Manny’s son, Caleb Malhotra.
Is this a potential concern for the Canucks, whether it’s behind the bench or on the draft floor?
“It hasnât happened often in the NHL”
There are very few examples of head coaches who coached their son at the NHL level.
A recent example of this happening was when Dave Lowry took over as coach of the Winnipeg Jets during the 2021-22 season while his son, Adam, played for the team. That tenure was short-lived, as Lowry served as interim head coach for just 56 games. The following season, he left to join the Seattle Kraken as an assistant.
Dave’s comments in the aftermath of this highlight that, while it can work, there are certainly additional challenges to the arrangement.
“The hardest part is that you have a kid in the room,” Lowry told Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press back in 2022. “Thereâs a reason why that doesnât happen, why it hasnât happened often in the NHL. And I think that was probably the toughest thing.”
Lowry shed some additional insights into how the dynamics changed, both for him and Adam.
“[Adam] is a leader, everyone knows that. But, realistically, he lost his voice last year in the room,” Dave said.
Shortly after Dave left the Jets organization, Adam was promoted to assistant captain. One year later, he was named captain of the Jets.
“I think today you look at where [Adam] is this year, that doesnât happen if Iâm there,” Lowry said.
While Lowry cast doubt on the fact that he could co-exist as a head coach with his son on the team, there were also some hints that it could have worked beyond one partial season.
“There was a period of time, youâre coaching with your son, you have to make sure everyone understands on a professional level,” he said.
“I think the biggest compliment we got from a lot of the players is that they didnât even know I had a kid on the team. That was one of the things that you had to give up.â
Could Manny and Caleb make it work with Canucks?
The Lowry situation is just one example of how dynamics between the coach, player and NHL team can affect all parties involved.
Unfortunately, it’s really the only recent example of note when thinking about whether the Canucks could make it work with both Malhotras in the fold.
But the reality is, there are a plethora of potential complications when considering the locker room dynamics if both Manny and Caleb were on the Canucks, or any team, for that matter.
What happens if Manny becomes head coach of the Canucks, and then players start to turn on him while Caleb is on the team?
What happens if Caleb joins the team and then struggles? Would Manny be able to look at him in an unbiased fashion and coach him like he would with any other player?
And while Caleb is much younger than Lowry was with the Jets when his dad coached, would Manny be limiting his son’s voice as a locker room leader if he were in the fold?
Some hurdles cannot be ignored when theorizing about this potential scenario for the Canucks.
But if two people could buck the trend, it could be the Malhotras.
Manny is regarded as a great communicator with his players, something that inevitably helps build trust with his players.
Caleb seems to be cut from the same cloth, with his current OHL head coach praising him for his leadership at a young age.
“Manny and his wife have done an exceptional job at raising a really high-quality, character kid in Caleb,” Brantford Bulldogs head coach Jay McKee said. “His leadership ability, the way he connects with not just older but younger players, has been great.”
It’s certainly a situation that could work. But, as history tells us, it’s probably a situation that’s best avoided.