Boudreau not in Leafs' plans after they pluck assistant coach from Canucks

So much for the Boudreau to Toronto rumours.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Boudreau not in Leafs' plans after they pluck assistant coach from Canucks
Zuma Press

This just in, according to a report from Sportsnet NHL insider Elliotte Friedman the Toronto Maple Leafs have hired or will hire Manny Malhotra to join head coach Sheldon Keefe's staff as an assistant coach.

Check it out:


Friedman's counterpart over at TSN Pierre LeBrun has also confirmed the newS:



Malhotra had previously been with the Vancouver Canucks as an assistant coach the past three seasons and has really raised eyebrows around the league as a young, up and comer in the NHL coaching ranks. In particular, Malhotra has been credited with improving the Canucks' faceoff winning percentage and for helping beef up their penalty killing unit. Which, when you think about it, makes total sense. After all, Malhotra was a defensive specialist during his NHL playing days and was revered as one of the best faceoff specialists in all of hockey. He'll be tasked with helping young players like Auston Matthews perfect his game in the faceoff dot.

Interestingly enough, it was Friedman who had been reporting for weeks now that the Leafs were looking to add former Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau for their final assistant coaching position. Evidently that won't happen now and... well... Leafs fans online aren't exactly thrilled with the news. To be fair though, either are Canucks fans.

The truth of the matter is that both Boudreau and Malhotra are respectable NHL coaches and either of them would have been a good choice to join Keefe's coaching staff. We can only assume that Boudreau was in the running for the position but that Malhotra edged him out. Fair enough. The proof will be in the pudding and I don't think Leafs fans will be complaining about Malhotra's hiring if he can turn the team's faceoff and penalty killing percentages around. I know one person who will miss Malhotra in Vancouver: Canucks captain Bo Horvat.

“He doesn’t really focus on a lot of the negative things,” Horvat said earlier this season when talking about Malhotra. “Obviously, he’ll give you advice, but he also shows you the stuff that you’re doing really well, which I think is [good]. If I’m losing a couple of draws, he’ll show me those and then he’ll go back to showing me draws where I’m winning them all and all the little things that I’m doing to win those faceoffs. ‘This is what you do when you’re at your best.’ For what it's worth, Horvat finished 3rd in the entire NHL for faceoff wins.