The hockey world had a minor meltdown on social media this week after a tweet from sports broadcaster Shaun Morash pointed out one of the more remarkable family trees in recent sports history.
Malhotra’s son, born to him and his wife Joann Nash, the sister of NBA legend Steve Nash, is apparently a legitimate NHL lottery pick heading into the 2026 draft.
For anyone who followed Manny Malhotra’s long and winding career, the news hit with a certain poetic weight.
The tweet read simply: “Former Ranger Manny Malhotra had a baby with Steve Nash’s sister and that child is now an NHL lottery pick?”
It racked up nearly 281,000 views almost immediately, with replies ranging from nostalgic Rangers fans to skeptics questioning the details. One user replied that the kid was heading to Boston University as an incoming Terrier.
Another noted he had been playing out of his mind in the OHL playoffs. Someone else pointed out a “major Celebrini connection,” suggesting the young Malhotra was already being compared to elite company.
Not everyone was buying the hype fully. One commenter pushed back, calling the prospect “quite a bit overrated the last couple of weeks.”
Former Ranger Manny Malholtra had a baby with Steve Nash’s sister and that child is now an NHL lottery pick?
— Shaun Morash (@ShaunMorash) May 5, 2026
Another cautioned that some of the circulating stories were mixing confirmed facts with rumors. But the buzz was undeniable, and the family backstory behind it made the whole thing feel almost scripted.
A Family Built on Athletic Royalty
To understand why this story resonates, you have to appreciate just how loaded the Malhotra family tree actually is. Manny married Joann Nash, making Steve Nash his brother-in-law.
That is the same Steve Nash who won back-to-back NBA MVP awards with the Phoenix Suns and is widely considered one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game.
The other Nash sibling, Martin, spent 15 professional seasons in soccer and earned 38 caps for the Canadian national team, a detail one Twitter user was quick to remind people of.
Manny himself brought serious credentials to the family. Drafted seventh overall by the New York Rangers in 1998, he carved out a 991-game NHL career across stops in New York, Columbus, Dallas, San Jose, Vancouver, Carolina, and Montreal.
He was not a superstar, but he was a respected two-way center who led the league in faceoff percentage in 2011, the same year a puck to the left eye nearly ended everything.
Two surgeries and a long road back later, he kept playing, eventually winding down his career in the AHL with the Lake Erie Monsters in 2015.
His parents, both holding doctorates in chemistry, had always put education before hockey, and Manny credited that pressure-free upbringing for keeping his love of the game alive through every setback.
A New Generation Takes the Ice
Now, more than a decade later, the name Malhotra is generating NHL draft buzz again, only this time it belongs to the next generation.
One Twitter commenter suggested the Vancouver Canucks could be a natural landing spot given Manny’s ties to the city and his current role coaching their AHL affiliate, though others pointed toward a Toronto connection instead.
What is clear is that this story has caught people off guard in the best possible way.
The idea that a player who fought back from a career-threatening eye injury, waited by the phone for months hoping for one more shot, and quietly mentored minor league kids in Cleveland could now watch his own son get selected in the first round of an NHL draft is the kind of storyline that writes itself.
Hockey, more than most sports, runs in families. The Malhotras may be proving that better than anyone right now.