Malhotra hiring by Canucks ‘great moment’ for South Asian hockey community

Dampy Brar remembers watching Manny Malhotra with pride when he became the NHL’s second player of South Asian descent and wondering what it meant for hockey’s future.

“It was a great moment for our community,” said Brar, a coach who won the 2019-20 Willie O’Ree Community Hero Award. “People of my generation were like, ‘OK, what’s going to happen next?’”

The answer came Monday when Malhotra was hired as coach of the Vancouver Canucks, replacing Adam Foote, who was fired on May 19 after one season.

Malhotra is believed to be the first NHL head coach of South Asian descent, a milestone that’s being hailed within the community.

“This is a massive deal,” Randip Janda, a Canucks radio color analyst and a host on Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi, said on Tuesday. 

“Vancouver is a very diverse market. To have somebody that was really a trailblazer, the second player of South Asian descent in the NHL’s history, and now he’s the first South Asian head coach in the League’s history. It’s a big deal on a local level but also a national level.”

Kush Sidhu, director and coach with the Washington Pride, a girls’ hockey program in Washington, D.C. that has sent more than 140 players to NCAA Division I and Division III schools since its inception in 1995, said Malhotra’s historic rise to NHL coach is well-earned.

“It's about time,” Sidhu said. “He's certainly paid his dues. He's been successful. He's accomplished a lot. There was nothing given to him. I don't think there was any thought to his heritage that, ‘Oh, we need to do him a solid.’ I think this was the best hire.”

Roshen Jaswal, who completed his first season as an assistant with Swift Current of the Western Hockey League, said Malhotra’s hire shows him that there’s a path for him to the NHL.

“It's almost like a little North Star to kind of chase and guide you,” said Jaswal, who was a defenseman for NCAA Division III St. Olaf College from 2016-20 and played in 77 games in three minor leagues. “It’s definitely a goal of mine to coach (in the NHL) and so to see someone who looks like you being able to do it is pretty cool. So, yeah, it's definitely a big thing.

Malhotra had been coach of Abbotsford, the Canucks' American Hockey League affiliate, for the past two seasons. He went 44-24-2-2 in 2024-25 and guided the team to its first Calder Cup championship. This season, the team was 28-37-4-3 and did not qualify for the playoffs.

Prior to joining Abbotsford, Malhotra was an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs for four seasons from 2020-24. He also was a development coach with the Canucks (2016-17) and an assistant with them from 2017-20.

A center selected No. 7 in the 1998 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers, Malhotra played 16 NHL seasons from 1998-2015, including three seasons with Vancouver from 2010-13. He had 295 points (116 goals, 179 assists) in 991 regular-season games with the Rangers, Dallas Stars, Columbus Blue Jackets, San Jose Sharks, Canucks, Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens and two goals in 35 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

He made his NHL debut on Oct. 10, 1998 against the Canadiens, nine seasons after forward Robin Bawa became the first player of South Asian heritage in the NHL when he skated with the Washington Capitals against the Philadelphia Flyers on Oct. 6, 1989.

Malhotra’s hire is the latest example of the growth and influence of people of South Asian heritage within hockey. Sunny Mehta became the first NHL general manager of South Asian descent when the New Jersey Devils hired the former Florida Panthers assistant GM on April 16.

Michael Nijjar is a minority owner of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Malhotra family – no relation to Manny Malhotra – are part of the Ottawa Senators ownership group.

Sudarshan Maharaj, who survived pancreatic cancer in 2023, is director of goaltending for the Anaheim Ducks, overseeing the organization’s goaltending, coaching development and scouting for the position.

Manny Malhotra’s son, Caleb Malhotra, is a forward with Brantford of the Ontario Hockey League and is sixth in NHL Central Scouting’s final ranking of North American Skaters for the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft June 26-27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. 

“In a short period of time, there have been a lot of ‘firsts’ in our South Asian community,” Brar said. “It shows you that the NHL is embracing diversity and the South Asian community is becoming more prevalent in the game of hockey.”

Lali Toor, co-founder of Apna Hockey, an initiative that provides a network and support for players with South Asian backgrounds in Canada, believes that the ascensions of Malhotra and Mehta will reverberate beyond North America to India, where ice hockey is growing.

The Ice Hockey Association of India recently announced that it will ice men’s, women’s and U20 boys’ teams in the 2027 IIHF World Championships in the Division IV group.

“I think it's definitely going to draw more interest into hockey, knowing that there are people in our community that are actually in prominent positions in the NHL,” Toor said. “All the people that are part of that program and the new kids that are going to be part of that program are, hopefully, looking out west here seeing the noise that we’re making as heritage Indian or expats to help keep growing the game in a positive direction.”