Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
Winning the Calder Cup changes a person. Even experienced people Manny Malhotra.
Malhotra, 45, enters his second season as head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks and already has his name on the Calder Trophy. Last year, his team achieved a total of 60 wins, 32 draws, 2 draws and 2 losses in the regular season and playoffs, winning the first championship for the Vancouver-affiliated team.
The short offseason finally gave Malhotra a chance to look back on his rookie season. Some of it was to digest what he had learned. Of course, part of that meant savoring a victory that took 96 games to seal the victory.
“When you’re going through this,” Malhotra said, “there’s really no time to reflect because at this point, every day is Groundhog Day.” Prepare, analyze, rinse, repeat. You don’t get a chance to step back and look at what you’re doing. “
Malhotra was no newbie before last June’s championship game. He was drafted by the New York Rangers with the seventh overall pick in the 1998 NHL Draft, which was the start of a career that saw him play in 991 NHL games before retiring in 2016. Along the way, he even won the Calder Cup, which he won a quarter-century ago with the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Malhotra entered coaching immediately after his playing career ended. He spent four years in development and coaching roles with Vancouver, followed by four seasons as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs before taking the Abbotsford position in May 2024.
He’s back with the Canucks ready to run his own bullpen. After all, there’s no substitute for learning the ins and outs of managing an AHL season. How do you respond when your top player gets a call from an NHL club? How about managing a frustrated player who gets sent off? Road trip across the AHL map? A winning streak, and perhaps more importantly a losing streak? veterans. Rookies. The players are at a crossroads in their careers.
Malhotra handled it all. In January, the Canucks were below .500, but the Canucks managed to rally and become the most dangerous team in the AHL, winning 46 of their final 65 games. They avoided an early playoff exit with a winner-take-all victory in the first round against Tucson. They defeated the two-time conference champions in Coachella Valley and won a decisive Game 5 on the road in Colorado. They defeated Texas in a six-game conference finals series that included three overtimes and faced the red-hot Charlotte Checkers for the Calder Trophy.
Charlotte entered the Finals on an eight-game winning streak, but the Canucks took Game 1 on the road in double overtime and took a 3-1 lead. A fluke overtime goal by the Checkers in Game 5 prevented Abbotsford from clinching the title at home — another delicate situation Malhotra had to deal with. Instead of skating in front of fans, they had to fly back to Charlotte for Game 6, where the Canucks fell 2-0 early. It began to feel like the pursuit of the title might be unraveling.
But Malhotra stuck to the plan. His team rallied, scored three goals, withstood a desperate late attack by the Checkers and won the Calder Cup.
“It’s a daily learning process,” Malhotra said of his debut managing his own AHL team, “whether it’s from a standpoint of understanding the system, or how to teach the system or how to analyze the game, how to make in-game adjustments, lines, managing the room. It’s like having a finger on the pulse of everything that’s going on. It’s something new every day for me, something I’m getting used to, and I really enjoy that aspect of it.”
A lot has changed since June. The players dispersed, some graduating to Vancouver and others going elsewhere. Malhotra, however, is still in Abbotsford — despite being a candidate for NHL vacancies this summer. Of course, this is to be expected because NHL organizations see what Malhotra does. Vancouver has picked up Malhotra’s contract option for the 2026-27 season.
It’s now the second year. This will mean a different kind of learning. Of course, there are also new players. And the pressure that comes with being the defending champion. Opponents prepare for Abbotsford every night.
But now Malhotra has gained more knowledge from his coaching career.
“This year coming up, it’s going to be a little easier for me just getting a little familiar with the schedule, the travel, the team and how everything works,” he said. “However, the mentality of wanting to learn, grow, and get better at coaching every day is still the most important thing to me. I don’t expect anything to change in that regard.
“I’m still eager to learn more and coach these guys better.”
About two decades in the American Hockey League, TheAHL.com feature writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. In 2016, he received the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for outstanding coverage of the league.
