By now, you’ve certainly heard the news. Manny Malhotra will be the next head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. On Tuesday morning, Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson met with the media over Zoom to discuss the hiring.

Checking in from the Draft combine in Buffalo, Johnson offered up a litany of reasons why he believes Malhotra is the right option for the Canucks’ bench. Johnson shared that he keeps a running book of coaches and people in the game that interest him, and Malhotra was a part of that list:

“Manny was one of a few that I had really been keeping an eye on,” Johnson shared. “When I knew I needed a head coach in Abbotsford, I was very vindicated that he could do a heck of a job there. I knew where the team was at in terms of our prospects and knew the people that I wanted to bring in there at that time. I knew there was going to be a growth period of understanding the AHL, the ever-changing league that it is. I felt [Malhotra] was really strong and that could handle it and learn it and be okay with navigating something he didn’t know if I put some support around him, especially in his first few months.

“Things that jumped out right away were his ability to connect and communicate. Manny is able to wear many hats, and he holds players accountable. It’s not all rainbows every day. He’s able to navigate the adverse situations by being consistent.”

However, the biggest thing that made Malhotra the right guy for the job wasn’t that he won the Calder Cup in his first season as head coach in Abbotsford, but how he handled this past season. How Malhotra dealt with all of the roster changes, the injuries to their group, but also Vancouver’s, which saw his best players stripped from the lineup on short notice. Throughout all of that, Malhotra’s coaching process never changed. That’s what really stood out for Johnson:

“After winning a championship, was that when the ‘Aha’ moment was? No. Moments throughout this season when we navigated injuries and adversity. [We] never really saw the [full] team together, but saw Manny and his staff be able to deliver that consistency that was exactly the same as it was through a championship season. That’s when I felt, [heading] into a rebuild, when you’re going to have some adversity with some young players that need consistency and support, that coming into this, that’s why I said to [the media] at the press conference and wanted to be pretty honest about it, that he was the guy I needed to have a real good conversation with to get to this point, where we are today.”

Johnson had glowing reviews of Malhotra throughout the entire press conference. He hired him two years ago and got to witness firsthand the level of coaching and the environment Malhotra instilled in Abbotsford. But it’s not all about what a coach does with his players; it’s the day-to-day work with the ones he chose to work alongside him behind the bench that Johnson wants Malhotra to bring now to Vancouver:

“He’s very organized,” Johnson said about Malhotra. “A very great quality that I find in people in general, but especially a head coach, is the ability to delegate and not micro-manage. When you have a staff at any level, and that’s something I take a lot of pride in, which is why I think my belief in Manny [is so high]. You hire good people around you; you inspire them, you give them a plan, and then you let them execute what they’re good at.

“Manny’s very good at building his staff and his staff’s belief; delivering exactly what he wants and what he wants to feel like, but then empowering them to bring that to the table. Our staff in Abbotsford, we were one. We were connected. Everybody had a voice. Everybody had an opinion. Manny is a good listener. He takes in the information, but at the end of the day, I always encourage that this is your team. The final decision is yours. You talk to any of his staff or our trainers or people around the rink, the personal connection is there, but the respect for the work you have to do is there. That’s what I expect him to bring to Vancouver as we try to slowly change this environment.”