As the Vancouver Canucks edge toward the start of the NHL season, Manny Malhotra’s new coaching staff is starting to take shape in a much clearer way.
The team laid out the assignments for its assistants on the Canucks website, with Malhotra handing Ryan Mougenel, Jordan Smith and Jason Krog distinct areas of responsibility. Mougenel, the reigning American Hockey League coach of the year, will run the offence and oversee the power play. Last season with Providence, his Bruins finished ninth in the AHL on the man advantage at 20.8%.
That number will matter in Vancouver. The Canucks’ power play ranked 14th in the NHL last season at 21.8%, though it was far sharper after the Olympic break, when it was second only to the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes over a 25-game stretch.
Smith, who came up from Abbotsford with Malhotra, is taking on the defensive side of the operation. His biggest task is obvious: fix a penalty kill that finished last in the NHL at 71.5% and gave up a league-high 65 power play goals. That’s a heavy lift, but it’s now squarely on his plate.
Krog’s role is broader. He’ll work alongside Mougenel on offensive concepts, with a focus on attacking off the rush, while also serving as a kind of utility piece inside the staff.
Malhotra said Krog will look at different parts of the team’s systems and structure, and he’ll continue working with individual players on the ice and through video. That extends the skills coach job he has held for the past two seasons.
Malhotra will also rely on goalie coach Marko Torenius when it comes to decisions in net.
After handling the hiring process through phone calls and FaceTime, Malhotra finally got his full group together for the first time during a weekend in early August. He pointed to the staff’s people skills as one of its defining traits.
“One of the biggest strengths that our staff possess is their ability to relate to people and talk to people, Malhotra told Canucks Insider Lindsey Horsting. “That’s such a big part of teaching.”
The real work begins quickly. The Canucks’ training camp week starts with the annual Jake Milford golf tournament on September 14th, followed by camp in Penticton on September 17th. Their preseason schedule opens in Seattle on Saturday, September 19th, in the first of four NHL exhibition games.
Before that, Canucks prospects will meet a group of Seattle Kraken youngsters in Abbotsford for a two-game set on September 12th and 13th. Those games are expected to be handled by the Canucks’ AHL coaching staff, led by new head coach Ryan Papaioannou.
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