When he elevated to Bantam hockey, Manlow played AAA for the Peterborough Minor Petes before being drafted by the Kitchener Rangers in the 3rd round (38th overall) of the 1991 OHL Priority Selection.

He was a member of the 1994-95 OHL Champion Detroit Jr. Red Wings and participated in the 1995 Memorial Cup Finals.

Manlow played four years in the OHL with both Kitchener and the Detroit Junior Red Wings.

He played for a number of minor-league teams—the Indianapolis Ice and the Long Beach Ice Dogs of the IHL, the Columbus Chill and the Florida Everblades of the ECHL, the Baltimore Bandits and the Providence Bruins of the AHL—before making his NHL debut with Boston.

He bounced between the NHL and the AHL for the next 4 seasons, playing for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers and Grand Rapids Griffins in addition to New York, before spending 4 seasons in the AHL with Grand Rapids and the Hamilton Bulldogs, with whom he won the Calder Cup in 2007.