PENTICTON, B.C. — We knew Manny Malhotra could yell and coach. We didn’t know he could still fly.
At the end of an energetic opening day of training camp that launched the rebuild era for the Vancouver Canucks, Malhotra capped Day 1 as a National Hockey League coach on Thursday by joining players — and beating some of them — in a back-and-forth conditioning skate at the South Okanagan Events Centre.
“Yeah, that would be a first where you're getting toasted in the bag skate by your head coach,” 36-year-old defenceman Luke Schenn said.
Malhotra, 46, and his staff of new assistants actually did the skate twice, at the end of both split-squad practices. Each player had to do it only once.
“Don’t ask others what you're not willing to do yourself,” Malhotra explained to reporters. “Obviously, I time it so that I know that they're a little bit more tired, so I can be a part of it. Our mentality as a coaching staff is that we're all in this together; it's not you guys and us. We’re a part of doing the work and ... building something.”
The entire Canucks organization seems to be part of it.
The re-energization began with regime change last May when Ryan Johnson was hired as general manager by new co-presidents Daniel and Henrik Sedin. Johnson promoted Malhotra just over two weeks later — one year after the duo guided the minor-league Abbotsford Canucks to the Calder Cup.
The positivity grew as Johnson and Malhotra built out their staffs over the summer, and was stoked by the early return to Vancouver of the entire roster of players, who were encouraged by veterans Brock Boeser and Thatcher Demko, among others, to report for pre-camp skates no later than Sept. 1.
This is all part of the foundational plan drafted by Johnson and the Sedins to build a healthier, more positive environment for the Canucks after the team collapsed over the last two seasons amid dysfunction that former president Jim Rutherford said was the worst he had encountered during his lifetime in the NHL.
Everything the Canucks are doing has this environment in mind, which is why it seemed fitting that Malhotra threw himself and his assistants into the miserable task of skating lengths on Thursday — even though Malhotra was simply doing what he did as a head coach in the American Hockey League
“It doesn't shock me,” Boeser, the longest-serving Canuck, said. “Manny would do that stuff my first couple years when he was assistant coach (with the Canucks).”
Does it matter?
“Absolutely,” Boeser said. “When I'm gassed and I see the other coaches doing this, I'm like, ‘All right, they're in the fight with us.’ Some of those guys are older. They could be like, screw it, take the easy path. But they're doing those sprints with us. It was great to see.”
“I mean, it has changed so much from last season,” centre Marco Rossi, who arrived in Vancouver from Minnesota in last December’s blockbuster trade of Quinn Hughes, said of the change in atmosphere around the Canucks. “When I came here, I could feel like maybe it's not a team, you know, where you feel comfortable around everyone. Now, coming here (this season), it's completely different.”
The roster is not completely different, but it looks different enough.
The strategic additions of defencemen Schenn and Jamie Oleksiak in free agency and winger Brendan Gallagher in a June trade from the Montreal Canadiens appear already to have had a positive impact on the group.
Schenn, who spends his off-seasons just up Okanagan Lake from Penticton, in Kelowna, is on his third stint with the Canucks.
He last played for them in 2022-23 before he was traded at the trade deadline to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and is well aware of whatever tensions existed within the Canucks before Rutherford trumpeted them publicly two years ago as he traded J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers.
“No, none of it surprised me,” Schenn said Thursday about reports of disharmony in Vancouver. “I've got a pretty good relationship with some guys in the room. I'm buddies with guys who were here last year and the year before, and obviously, I was here under the last manager. So I have a pretty good pulse of what's going on and has gone on.
“I don't know if it was as bad as maybe people think, but there's definitely room for improvement. You don't want to keep bringing up the past because I think there's such a good environment right now and a good attitude about what's going on.
“There’s a great bunch of young guys. Incredible direction and leadership from the top down: Henrik and Daniel, R.J. and Manny. We definitely have a lot higher expectations than what's gone on here in the last little bit.”
A two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Schenn knows what great team culture looks like.
“You don't want it to be cliquey at all where guys, you know, are not invited to dinners with a certain group of guys, and then they find out about it the next day,” he explained. “I think you want to just include everyone, build relationships with everyone. You're taught in kindergarten, treat people how you want to be treated. I mean, just be a good person.
“The word ‘culture’ gets thrown around a ton, but there's so much that goes into it: the right attitude, positivity each and every day, trying to push to get better on the ice and in the gym. There's just so much that goes into it. But you can't do that unless you're all getting along. You know, when I've been on winning teams, everyone gets along from the top down. It’s like everyone feels like they're part of something bigger than themselves.”
Malhotra spent his first day emphasizing intensity and defending. He had the loudest voice on the ice, and it was heard often.
“That’s what Manny is — he’s a leader,” veteran Canuck minor-leaguer Guillaume Brosebois said. “He’s still like a player; he leads by example. If he asks us to be in the gym, he’s going to be in the gym also. If he asks us to bag skate, we’re going to see him bag skate, too. It’s easy for us to get behind him.”
Malhotra used second-year Canuck winger Linus Karlsson on a potential top line, alongside Elias Pettersson and Jake DeBrusk. He deployed prospect Jonathan Lekkerimaki with Rossi and Liam Ohgren. No. 1 defenceman Filip Hronek was paired with Oleksiak and not $75-million prospect Zeev Buium, who instead was assigned to Schenn.
And like every other NHL coach on the first day of training camp, Malhotra urged reporters not to read too much into his Day 1 lineups. Naturally, his plea was mostly ignored.
“I was very pleased with the energy and the jump of the guys today,” the coach said. “There was a lot of chatter on the ice ... the intensity was high, and that's a great start for me. It was a great environment from a competitive standpoint, and I think the guys very quickly got out of summer skate mode.”
But the positive summer vibes continued.
“I can't speak on what happened before or what was said before,” Malhotra explained. “Throughout this whole off-season, my focus has been on what we're going to be doing on Sept. 17, on Day 1. How are we going to establish the environment we want to create here? What are we going to look like systematically? The focus is on moving forward. Obviously, guys who have been here in the past have their history, but for me, it's about starting anew, starting from ground zero and building from here.”
