What Vancouver Canucks new management team means for Manny Malhotra | Daily Hive

@Canucks/X

For over a year, he’s been touted as the Vancouver Canucks’ future head coach.

But is that how it’s actually going to play out?

While we await an official announcement from the Canucks regarding their new management team, everything suggests that Ryan Johnson will be the 13th general manager in club history, with the 49-year-old reporting to the Sedin twins in the new front office structure.

If this is indeed the Canucks’ new management team, there probably isn’t a trio that would be more open to having Manny Malhotra as the club’s next head coach.

Malhotra has obvious ties to Johnson and the Sedins. The former Canucks shutdown centre played with the twins for parts of three seasons during their Stanley Cup-contending years. He was also an assistant coach under Travis Green during the Sedins’ final year before retirement.

Johnson and Malhotra worked in conjunction down in Abbotsford, where they won a Calder Cup for the AHL’s Canucks in 2025.

“We grew together in a sense,” Johnson told Chris Faber last year on the Canucks Insider podcast. “I wanted him to have the feeling right away that I trusted him to the end with anything and everything.”

Ryan Johnson has spoken in glowing terms about Manny Malhotra (Canucks Insider Podcast/YouTube)

Johnson also touched on how the duo bonded over the year during their success.

“We were, and still are, on the same page of keeping distractions out, keeping a room quiet and focused,” he said. “We navigated it through staying consistent to each other, keeping our room consistent, and it paid off.”

While Johnson would have a working knowledge of the Canucks’ current head coach, Adam Foote, Malhotra is the guy he clearly has bonded with and developed trust in.

The Sedin twins would have had a birds-eye view with both coaches recently, having spent time at both Canucks practices in the NHL under Foote, and the AHL under Malhotra.

Of anyone, you would think this trio would be as pro-Malhotra as they come.

That may matter, as Malhotra has been an NHL head coaching candidate for over a year now. Whether it’s in Vancouver or elsewhere, he seems destined to get his shot sooner rather than later.

If Malhotra were to leave, one of the most likely destinations seems to be the Toronto Maple Leafs. And as of Wednesday, they are one of two NHL teams with a current head coaching vacancy.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Wednesday that the Maple Leafs could have interest in Malhotra as their next bench boss. He spent four years as an assistant coach with the Leafs before joining the Abbotsford Canucks in 2024.

Adding to the coaching dilemma for Johnson and the Sedins is the fact that the Canucks may realistically draft Manny’s son, Caleb, with the third overall pick next month. Could the two of them coexist within the Canucks organization?

If Malhotra is still the guy for Vancouver’s new management trio, there’s a good chance they’ll have to make that decision pretty early in their tenure.

You might also like: