The Toronto Maple Leafs are going through changes behind the bench after announcing last week that former Stanley Cup winner Craig Berube was hired to be the head coach.
With the hiring of Berube there has been a lot of speculation that there will be an overhaul with most of the coaching staff of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
During his press conference, Berube was asked if there would be changes to the staff, which he responded that the decision of who would join him had not be decided but mentioned that there was already someone from the Maple Leafs bench that he had worked with before (Mike Van Ryn).
With the likelihood of the changes to the staff, Manny Malhotra jumped at an opportunity to take the next step in his coaching career and on Friday afternoon the Vancouver Canucks announced that they had hired him to be the head coach of their American Hockey League affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.
Toronto Maple Leafs and Manny Malhotra Part Ways
Malhotra spent three seasons as an assistance coach with the Canucks working under current Ottawa Senators coach Travis Green. The Mississauga native also spent three seasons as a forward with the Canucks dressing in 159 games and collecting 48 points.
Malhotra joined the Maple Leafs in September 2020 joining the Sheldon Keefe staff along with Paul MacLean and Dave Hakstol. Through his four seasons on the staff, Malhotra saw the team make the playoffs in each campaign and winning one playoff series.
This will be the first time that the former seventh overall pick has head coached a professional team.
There has been a lot of speculation and rumours of who will be joining Berube behind the bench. As he mentioned during his press conference, he had worked with someone on the current staff before which is Van Ryn. The former NHL defenseman had worked part of five seasons under Berube in St. Louis prior to joining the Maple Leafs this past season.
A name that keeps coming up that is a likely candidate to be joining the team is former 90+ point center Marc Savard. The Ottawa native worked one season under Berube in St. Louis during the 2019-20 season before taking a head coaching job with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League.
Savard came back to the NHL this past season as an assistant coach with the Calgary Flames, but the two sides recently parted ways.