- Canucks name Ryan Mougenel, Jordan Smith and Jason Krog as assistant coaches under Manny Malhotra
- None of the three has any NHL bench experience, giving Vancouver the greenest staff in the league
- Read below for how Malhotra leaned on his Calder Cup-winning Abbotsford pipeline
The Canucks handed Manny Malhotra his bench, and it looks a lot like the one he just left in the minors.
Vancouver made it official Friday, naming Ryan Mougenel, Jordan Smith and Jason Krog as assistant coaches under Malhotra, with Andrew Shaw joining as assistant to the video coach. General manager Ryan Johnson rounded out a staff that had sat mostly empty since Malhotra took the top job a month ago.
There’s a common thread running through the group. Not one of the three assistants has coached a game behind an NHL bench. For a club already staring down a rebuild, that makes Vancouver the greenest staff in the league when the puck drops in late September.
Smith is the assistant Malhotra knows best. He spent the last two years working under Malhotra in Abbotsford, where the group won the Calder Cup in 2024-25. Before that he ran benches in the NOJHL and put in five seasons as an associate coach in the OHL.
Mougenel brings the most decorated resume of the bunch. He just wrapped his eighth season with the AHL’s Providence Bruins and took home Coach of the Year honors after steering them to a league-best 54-16-2 record.
Krog’s name might ring a bell for longtime Canucks fans. He played more than 200 NHL games across an 18-year pro career and closed it out with four appearances in Vancouver. He’s spent the last two seasons as a skills and skating coach in the organization, and this is his first pro job behind the bench.
Goaltending coach Marko Torenius is the only holdover from last season’s staff.
Malhotra spelled out what he wanted from his assistants not long after he was named the 23rd head coach in franchise history. Here’s Malhotra on the search:
It all traces back to Abbotsford. Malhotra built a Calder Cup winner down there, and now he’s carrying that room’s fingerprints up to an NHL club that finished last season with the worst record in hockey.
Come September, Vancouver opens camp with a head coach who has one NHL season on his own resume and three assistants who have none.
