Elliotte Friedman: a clear frontrunner has emerged in the Canucks' coaching search
Elliotte Friedman dropped a Tuesday night bomb on the Vancouver Canucks coaching search, and the name attached is Manny Malhotra.
In his latest 32 Thoughts column, Friedman wrote it "sure looks" like this isn't much of a search beyond Malhotra. That is unusually direct language from him.
The implication is obvious. The Canucks already know who they want behind the bench, and the formal process is mostly window dressing at this point.
Vancouver finished 25-49-8 for 58 points. Dead last in the NHL. A wreck of a season by any measure.
The goal differential told the real story. Minus-100. Two hundred and sixteen goals for, 316 against, an average of 3.9 goals allowed per night.
Home ice was where it got embarrassing. The Canucks went 9-27-5 at Rogers Arena. You cannot sell tickets on that kind of math.
Why Malhotra is the only name on Vancouver's list
Malhotra is a former Canuck, an organizational favorite, and a respected voice in NHL coaching circles. He has been an assistant in Toronto and Columbus, and he is widely viewed as ready.
He is also a familiar face for ownership. That matters more than most fans want to admit when a franchise just bottomed out at minus-100.
Here is the question. After a 32nd-place finish, does Vancouver really want comfort, or does it want a jolt? Because hiring an insider after a season like this reads like a soft landing for the front office, not a real reset.
The Canucks closed the year with a 1-6 beating in Edmonton on April 16. Last impression for whoever takes this job.
The road record was actually their saving grace at 16-22-3. The home product is what fractured the fan base.
A 4-6-0 mark over the final 10 games sealed the draft lottery positioning. Nobody in Vancouver pretended this team was going anywhere down the stretch.
If Friedman is right, the announcement is a matter of when, not if. The bigger question is what kind of staff Malhotra builds around him.
The roster is the harder fix. A new voice on the bench is the easy part of fixing a -100 club.
-
|
LIVE
MAY 20, 2026
| ||||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Dylan Coghlan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nic Dowd | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ross Colton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tomas Hertl | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ben Hutton | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mitch Marner | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brandon Saad | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Sissons | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Devon Toews | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Ahcan | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| Brent Burns | - | - | - | |
| Jack Drury | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||