How important is that aspect in athlete development, team environment development, whether people go on to professional careers or, or simply rec league players, or people who work in offices, understanding how to fit in a different environment, how important is multi-sport with respect to that?

Um, it, it's huge.

A- and while you were saying that, it brought me back to a, a few years ago I s- I heard, uh, John Herdman and Christine Sinclair speaking at a, at a Canucks event, and they were talking about the youth sports experience.

And, uh, one of the questions was, what do you say to, to kids that are struggling or, you know, the topic of just moving different teams and stuff.

Or what advice can you br- give to parents? And, and John's answer was unbelievable.

Without skipping a beat he said, "Don't be that parent." And everybody kind of started giggling, but he, he brought it back to the story of, he said, "Almost to a woman on my team, they struggled at some point in their career.

They didn't make a team at some point in their career, whether it was first year university, whether it was U17, whether it was 15 years old, they didn't make the team that they want.

Are we struggling in that regard in youth sports, that we're not creating as much adaptability because we're so worried about, quote-unquote, "success" for our kids?

What did you learn through all of that transition? mayhem in a sense of injuries call-ups and trying to still keep building to a team that you you know you had battling all the way through um

it was a great lesson for for myself and and all of our staff as we we constantly preach energy and body language and one thing that we will we say to the guys is that it's very easy to be a good teammate and be in a great mood when you're on a winning streak and the guys are getting their points and everything's going our way.

It's real easy to be a good teammate and have that positive vibe to you.

When things aren't going your way, what kind of a teammate are you? What kind of energy do you show up to the rink with? So for us, again, coming back to that leading by example mentality, finding the energy every day to come in and find the positives within our game and to continue to teach what we want the guys to do.

It was hard to do, but it was a great lesson for us because at the end of the day, the wins weren't stacking up and the record didn't reflect it, but we were proud of the progress that group made in terms of executing the things that we had asked them to, throughout our practices, throughout the course of the week, working on specific things and seeing those things in the game, those are the milestones that we took out of the course of the year was that, hey, they're trying, they're working hard, they're executing, they're doing what we were asking them to do, but we're not getting the results.

So trying to keep that positive mindset of the group and to their credit, they did it.

That was a real positive that we took away from it.

Where does that come from for you?

What, what has he gotta do to become an NHL regular in your eyes?

Well, for me, the, the main things that we're focused on in Abbotsford in terms of what I would call transferable skills, uh, whether you're at the American League level, the NHL level, is your ability to win puck battles, uh, your ability to win and gain body position on people, uh, and just learning how to play heavy.

Obviously, i- i- when you, when you watch Jonathan play, extremely skilled, uh, a lethal shot.

He puts himself i- in good scoring positions.

Um, the thing that he needs to work on and the thing that we discussed in Abbotsford is his ability to get pucks off of a wall or come up with puck in a puck battle.

And, and obviously he's not 6'4", 220 pounds.

Um, so those are learned behaviors of how heavy you have to be on your stick and how to engage guys and how to get through hands.

Talk a little bit about his journey and, and up to next week when he gets drafted.

I mean, where do you go from here initially to start making that happen and understanding what people get a feeling of what it is to be a Canuck?

Well, for me, it starts when I came here in 2010, seeing the work of the alumni group here and obviously playing for a number of different teams, seeing a number of different alumni associations.

When I got here, I realized these guys are in the community for the right reasons.

They're not just lending their name to charities and donating stuff.

They're putting in their time.

They're showing up.

They're...

Why is it that like a day by day mentality is so important for professionals at this level? Yeah.

How challenging is it to do that in a losing season that way, and to be able to kind of maintain your composure in many ways and be able to get through it and, and not get inconsistent with how you, how you operate day to day?

It was, uh, it was probably, uh, some of the most important learning for, for myself and my staff.

Um, we are constantly preaching about body language and energy.

And, and for me, leading by example, um, is a major way to, to lead a group, whether you're the coach, the GM, the captain of the team.

Um, so for me, living what I'm talking about was really important to show the guys that, hey, we're, we're not enjoying losing.

We're not accepting of the fact that w- we don't have a winning record.

We are gonna work daily to make sure we improve ourselves, to give ourselves an opportunity to win games.Um, and that in itself kind of leading by example, showing the guys that we have to find the positives in what we're doing here to make what we're doing worthwhile.

I- i- in your playing career, was, was there a coach that had that moment for you, or, or even for a teammate that you saw, "Okay, like, that's why that matters so much?"

Uh, and today it's an honor for me to introduce to you the 23rd head coach in the history of the Vancouver Canucks, Manny Malhotra.

Thanks, RJ.

Um, I just have a few quick thank yous.

Um, I'm gonna start with, uh, instead of using the line, uh, last and certainly not least, I'm gonna start with this thank you, um, to my incredible wife, Jo, and my four kids.

Um, a decade ago when we decided that we were gonna go down this coaching lifestyle path, we, we did so with the understanding that there would be some uncertainty, there, there would be some moving, um, which is not an ideal s- scenario for a young family with four kids.

Um, but we did so anyways, and their love and support and sacrifice motivated me and got me to where I'm sitting today, and that brings us to today.

Um, the next thank you, I'd like to, uh, thank the Aquilini family for this incredible opportunity, uh, and entrusting me with the responsibility to coach the Vancouver Canucks.

Um, so you're coming into a team that, uh, has not been very good the last season, and w- how do you motivate a, a team that's gonna do a lot of losing over the next few years? So what, w- there's gonna be a lot of games that, that are not gonna go your way.