Kevin Woodley

And probably better now than then, given the way things have shifted around this team and the runway that he'll have and what they're trying to build here now versus the win for Quinn mentality that they went into last season with.

But I was worried they would lose him last summer as an option.

And so the fact he's still there, you know, and the fact that we've heard a lot about this alignment, there's a lot of wait and see and show me, don't tell me.

But I do like what I hear.

And I think when you know the people involved, the Sedins, Ryan Johnson, Manny Malhotra, like you believe in the messaging.

I'll be curious to see what he has to say to more about style play and some of those things.

But I find it hard to,

I find it hard to pick apart this hire in any way.

I know there's a lack of experience, but he did four years and has been assistant.

He goes back to the American League and does the head coaching thing.

He has success.

You heard Ryan Johnson talk about the consistency of his delivery when they weren't having success last year.

Just checks a ton of boxes in terms of the path he's taken to get to here.

The alignment top to bottom gives you faith and hope that they're going to do this the right way.

And everything I've heard about him from opponents in the American Hockey League when I used to go out there on a more regular basis, opposing coaches and management, the players that I talked to this year in the Canucks locker room about their experiences, the players I talked to last year during the Calder Cup run, made you to believe that this is the start of a really good NHL coaching career for Manny Malhotra.

If you're a Canucks fan, you hope it's a long-term career here.

You take a look at Rod Brindamore in Carolina and what he's done.

Could this be the start of something like that here?

Only time will tell.

But he checks a lot of the same boxes in terms of experience as a player, what he's done, the different jobs he's done as a coach.