‘Tis the season
While the big dogs play in the playoffs, everyone else has the opportunity to tweak their lineup and organization.
The Colorado Avalanche are doing that by letting go of Ray Bennett. The (now) former Avalanche assistant coach was in charge of running the team’s powerplay.
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The Vancouver Canucks parted ways with Rick Tocchet earlier in their offseason. Now, several reports indicate two frontrunners for the vacant position.
Thomas Drance and I both reporting, Adam Foote is still very much in the mix in the Canucks head coaching job.
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) May 13, 2025
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Manny Malhotra and Adam Foote are the two candidates still in the running for the head coaching position. Malhotra has been an NHL assistant coach for both the Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs. This season, he was the head coach for the Canucks AHL affiliate, the Abbotsford Canucks.
On the other hand, Foote is a former Avalanche defender who was on staff with Tocchet. Before that, he coached in the WHL as the head coach for the Kelowna Rockets.
According to one of these reports, Malhotra is the Canucks’ “slight favorite.” However, the team has not announced anything at the time of this writing.
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Patrick Johnston on BlueskyEchoing and extending on what Dhali and Drancer have put together: sounds like Canucks’ head coaching job is coming down to Adam Foote or Manny Malhtora, with Malhotra the slight favourite.
— Rick Dhaliwal (@DhaliwalSports) May 13, 2025
The fluidity of these situations is not surprising. Much thought needs to be given to the individual tasked with running your team, and management must take extreme care in choosing the right individual.
Both candidates make sense for different (but similar) reasons. Malhotra is familiar with the AHL team and has more experience as a coach, while Foote is more familiar with the players’ strengths and weaknesses with the NHL team.
Nevertheless, this story will be interesting to follow, especially for long-time Avalanche fans.
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