Canucks coach Manny Malhotra: ‘Very big difference between losing games and playing losing hockey’
The Vancouver Canucks aren’t fooling themselves as they open 2026 NHL training camp—they know there’s a lot of losing to come. For now, though, there’s the early-season positivity, not weighed down by losses or a frustrated fanbase, instead buoyed by a new season on the horizon.
After finishing the 2025-26 season last in the NHL by a 14-point margin, and securing just nine wins on home ice, in addition to trading franchise defenseman and captain Quinn Hughes to the Minnesota Wild, there’s hope that this year can avoid much of that drama and instead focus on the aspects of the rebuilding phase.
“There’s a very big difference between losing games, which is inevitable; every team is going to do it, and playing losing hockey,” new head coach Manny Malhotra told reporters Wednesday ahead of training camp, flanked by co-presidents Henrik and Daniel Sedin.
“The measure of our group will be on playing the right way, doing the things that we’re talking about, having details to your game, which is going to give us an opportunity to win. Those are the measures that, when you look back on a game, did we check the boxes? That’s where the pride or the joy will come from: knowing that we are learning, we’re doing the things that we’re asked, and it’s getting better.”
The Canucks enter the season with a much different outlook than last. After bidding farewell to Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford as general manager and president, and moving on to GM Ryan Johnson and the Sedins, the team is finally embracing the early stages of a rebuild.
This summer, they secured the future of promising blueliner Zeev Buium through the next nine seasons with an eight-year contract extension, and brought in veterans including Paul Cotter and Brendan Gallagher, whom they hope can mentor a young core and potentially serve as midseason trade pieces.
With that adjustment, and the start of a rebuilding phase, the management group knows wins and losses won’t define things—something easier said than done before any games are lost—but rather a clear vision that sets the tone for the fanbase.
“We want to see a team that plays for each other,” Henrik Sedin said. “The fans walk into the building, and they see a group that fights for each other. You see a foundation, you see a plan in everything they do, and some of them are going to take steps this year. There’s going to be some of them who might not take the step this year, but at least you see that foundation in place, and that’s all we’re going to ask for. And we’re not going to talk about wins or losses. It’s a process, like Manny said.”
While the Canucks know the Stanley Cup playoffs aren’t even in the plans for this season, there will be hopes that it isn’t as bad as last season, potentially closing the gap on the 32nd and final spot in the NHL, or even moving slightly up in the standings.
That mission begins in Penticton with training camp on Thursday, with eyes focused on the season opener against the Edmonton Oilers on Oct. 1 at Rogers Arena.