Canucks select – Four weeks after naming Manny Malhotra as Vancouver Canucks head coach, the team drafted his son, Caleb Malhotra, third overall—the franchise’s highest pick in 27 years—defying the usual instinct to avoid father-son optics.
VANCOUVER — The day the Canucks finally made Manny Malhotra their head coach, it looked like the story would run one way: father on the bench, family by his side, the hockey world watching closely.
Then Friday came, and at Rogers Arena in Vancouver the focus shifted to a different name—Caleb Malhotra. Four weeks after Manny was named head coach, the Canucks selected Caleb third overall in the National Hockey League draft, their highest pick in 27 years.
Joann Malhotra says she’s lived the complicated version of this dynamic for years. When Caleb was young—around 10—she remembers Manny coming home from coaching, and both parents having to manage the fallout.
“Caleb was quite young… they’d come home nattering and they’d be mad at each other. ” Joann recalled in a phone call Friday night. “Caleb must have been 10-ish. And Manny would come home and say. ‘He’s not listening.’ And Caleb would be. ‘Dad this or that.’ It was actually me that said. ‘No more of this. you’re not coaching him any more. I’m not dealing with this.’ But other parents would want Manny to coach. So we just openly talked about it. Manny had to draw the line; he’s the adult. And Caleb had to take responsibility and realize. ‘Hey. taking criticism is going to be a big part of your journey and you can do it gracefully and learn. or you can pout.’”.
According to Joann, once they were open about two things—the fact Manny was the coach, and the fact Caleb had to learn to take criticism—the family found a way to make the relationship work without blurring the boundaries.
“Once they acknowledged those two things openly, Manny would literally say: ‘Do you want dad or do you want coach?’ And Caleb would give him an answer and we’d go from there. To be honest, that worked really well.”
That lesson was always going to be tested by the Canucks’ timing. On Friday, after the team announced Manny as head coach, Vancouver still went forward and drafted Caleb with the franchise’s highest pick since its top selection 27 years ago.
“We didn’t draft Manny’s kid; we drafted Caleb Malhotra,” Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson told reporters at Rogers Arena.
Johnson added that the organization’s intention was clear from the start: the idea of an “extra variable” tied to playing for his father was never part of the evaluation.
“In the process of selecting Caleb. that idea of what an extra variable might be for him (playing for his dad) was never in the equation. It just came down to who we wanted to be a Vancouver Canuck. who we wanted to go on this journey with who we took at No. 3, what we felt that person could bring into this building, into this dressing room and. . . would leave their mark on this organization.”.
Caleb hugged family members, including famous Uncle Steve Nash, at the draft in Buffalo. The moment carried extra weight for the Malhotras because of their B.C. roots. Caleb was born in Victoria, and Joann is from Victoria as well. Her younger sister is basketball Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash. Another brother, Martin, played soccer professionally in Vancouver and still coaches here.
Johnson’s wording set the tone that the Canucks wanted Caleb to be chosen as a player—not as a connection. Caleb’s own reaction echoed that he didn’t know what the organization planned for him before the pick.
“I had no clue or no hints from anybody,” the 18-year-old, two-way centre said in a Zoom call. “I was just as blind as everybody else was. Just to hear my name get called at all. and then especially to this organization — it’s got a personal connection and big emotional meaning for me — I’m just so grateful. This couldn’t have been more perfect for me.”.
Vancouver drafted another first-rounder at pick No. 24, selecting powerful goal-scoring Czech winger Adam Novotny. The Canucks selected two first-rounders for the first time since 2014, and they did it after taking Caleb at No. 3.
The choice to pick Malhotra over other options created another tension line across the top 10: Vancouver selected Caleb over “a handful of high-end, offensive defencemen who dominated the rest of the top 10.”
Caleb will attend Boston University next season. His only Ontario Hockey League campaign came with the Brantford Bulldogs, where he scored 84 points in 67 games, plus 26 more points in 15 playoff games.
That means, for now, the family won’t get the direct NHL coaching match that many fans will wonder about. With Manny’s NHL responsibilities ramping up, it could be another year or two before the father-son pairing becomes a reality at this level.
“We have kind of been climbing the ladder (together),” Caleb said this week. “He’s been an assistant coach and then a head coach in the AHL. and has just been working his way up. I’ve kind of been doing the same. working my way from minor hockey to Tier-2 junior to the OHL and now. hopefully. to get drafted. It’s been really cool to kind of go on that journey with him. Even though it’s different paths, it’s kind of the same.”.
Manny described the shift in their dynamic as Caleb grew older. Early on, he said, being the parent makes coaching harder.
“When you’re a 12-year-old kid. 13-year-old kid. regardless if you’re coaching them in hockey. in soccer. if you’re talking about homework. if you’re talking about. you know. how to sweep the floor. dad knows nothing. That’s kind of a common trait that kids all go through — you don’t want to hear the advice of your parents. And that was the case.
“Whereas now, the evolution of him understanding that his dad also happens to be a professional hockey coach, he wants the information, he wants to learn more. It’s a much different dynamic than teaching a 12-year-old kid.”
Joann said she believes the NHL version can work, even if it’s not a straightforward transplant of spring hockey. She doesn’t think there’s a clean roadmap.
“It is complicated,” she told us. “It’s not an easy thing to accomplish but I have every faith that they can do it. I don’t think. ‘Oh. this is going to be easy and we’ll just follow the road map.’ Because there is no road map. so we’re going to figure this out. But I know both Manny and Caleb really have a lot of integrity; they want to do things the right way.
“Caleb is very much like his dad and there are bound to be things we have to figure out. But you have that with every player, you have that with every organization. I have faith that they can handle it.”
The family’s path to Vancouver isn’t an abstract backdrop. Caleb was five years old when the Malhotras moved from Vancouver to Carolina in 2013 so Manny could continue playing after a serious eye injury ended his time with the Canucks. They moved again to Montreal, where Manny’s NHL career ended two years later, before eventually settling in Toronto. Still, Joann said their summers stayed tied to the city.
“But we always came back to Vancouver,” Joann said of their summers. “Our Vancouver home was always home.”
On draft day, as Caleb walked to the stage in Buffalo to meet NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and receive his first Canucks jersey as an adult, Joann and Manny took out their cellphones to snap photos.
“The emotions actually caught me off guard,” Joann said. “I was feeling really nervous for Caleb and when it happened, it was like this surreal moment. I really did think about all the years when he was little and he had these big dreams. I think everyone. when their kids say they want to go to the NHL or have these major dreams. people can brush it off. But I always thought that he could do it and that he would choose his path. He led the way. I’m proud of us as parents that we let him guide us.
“Not that his dad casts a massive shadow, but Caleb has earned this for himself and he deserved to have this moment without us looming over his shoulder.”
The scoreboard of destiny has its own twist: at third overall, Caleb went higher than Manny did when he was drafted. Caleb beat Manny in the draft order by four spots. Manny’s 991-game NHL career began after the New York Rangers selected him at No. 7 in the 1998 draft.
“His goal was always just to go higher than me,” Manny said, “and he made that very apparent when we started talking about the draft last year.
“What this comes down to, ultimately, is player and coach. I know people will kind of roll their eyes and say. ‘You can’t say it. it won’t be that way.’ But when we get to the arena. he knows he’s treated as I would (treat) any other player. That dynamic has worked for us. And when we leave the arena, there’s a very clear line that we’re not talking shop, I’m not coaching anymore. It’s just the dad conversations that take place.”.
The Canucks’ decision on Friday did what those “dad conversation” boundaries are supposed to prevent: it pulled father and son into the same spotlight at exactly the wrong time for anyone expecting separation. Yet the organization insists it didn’t draft Manny’s legacy—it drafted Caleb Malhotra. Now the rebuilding process in Vancouver starts with a family story. but the team says it will be measured like everyone else: by the player on the ice. and the work he brings into the dressing room.
Vancouver Canucks Manny Malhotra Caleb Malhotra NHL Draft Ryan Johnson Adam Novotny Boston University Brantford Bulldogs Steve Nash