Moving their AHL team to Abbotsford was a great move from the Canucks organization

Posted on by

For the first time since 2014, the city of Abbotsford is home to an AHL team and the city is embracing the hometown connection.

One of the biggest announcements of the summer for the Fraser Valley was news that the Vancouver Canucks were going to be moving their AHL minor league affiliate from Utica, New York back home to Abbotsford.

The Abbotsford Centre used to be home to the Abbotsford Heat, who were the minor league affiliate of the Calgary Flames. The city of Abbotsford never really had a connection with the Heat. It was a minor league affiliate with a team that was somewhat of a rival to the local NHL team.

Now, the Abbotsford Canucks are feeling full support from the locals as they consistently ice the Vancouver Canucks’ prospects who could be in the NHL very soon.

Mixed in with those young prospects is a local kid, who grew up playing his minor hockey in the city of Abbotsford. Noah Juulsen is a former first-round pick who the Canucks traded Olli Juolevi for just before the regular season kicked off.

“I think it’s awesome,” said Juulsen when asked about what his initial thoughts were when he heard about AHL hockey coming to Abbotsford.

“Obviously, when the Abbotsford Heat were here, it’s not the same vibe for local fans when you’re going to watch the Calgary Flames farm team and now I think with the team being the Abbotsford Canucks, the minor league team for the Vancouver Canucks, I think it’s awesome for the city. There’s a need to have more sports going on in Abbotsford and we have this beautiful rink here, it’s nice to finally get some use out of it.”

It’s clear to see that the city of Abbotsford is in full support of having the AHL team in their beautiful arena that was without any type of high-level professional hockey for seven years.

Ashton Sautner is a part of the leadership group in Abbotsford and wears a letter on his chest as the team currently skates without a captain. Sautner has been with the Vancouver Canucks’ organization since 2015 when he was signed after ageing out of the WHL.

Sautner was only able to play in one game last season as he spent almost the entire season on the Vancouver Canucks taxi squad. The taxi squad was set in place to help NHL teams have extra players close to their organization in case COVID were to hit the team.

https://twitter.com/ChrisFaber39/status/1446548221380026369?s=20

“We didn’t have fans in a long time and it’s an energy that we missed so much,” said Sautner. “Just to have that type of support on top of coming into a new arena, a new city and building a new fan base will be exciting. I think we’re going to have a good team that is super-competitive and hopefully we’re going to give the Abbotsford fans something to cheer about here.”

The fans have come back in droves and are showing support for the Vancouver Canucks through their support to the minor league team. Tickets are much cheaper out in Abbotsford and you get to see some great hockey.

The Abbotsford Centre has a low roof and when it’s packed with rabid fans, it’s quite the deafening atmosphere.

https://twitter.com/ChrisFaber39/status/1451774047822311427?s=20

The team is expected to have a very competitive season as the NHL team went out and made a lot of acquisitions to bolster the depth on the NHL team. The runoff of that depth is that many of the borderline NHL players will end up with the Abbotsford Canucks in the AHL.

The Abbotsford Canucks have some extremely talented players who have NHL skills such as Phil Di Giuseppe, Noah Juulsen, Justin Bailey, Sheldon Dries and Madison Bowey.

On top of the highly skilled veterans, the Abbotsford Canucks have been given a handful of skilled young prospects who could be making a difference on the NHL in a few years.

Danila Klimovich is the youngest player on the team at just 18 years old. He was selected in the second round of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. An 18-year-old rarely makes it into the AHL but Abbotsford fans have a chance to see the talented Belarussian.

Will Lockwood is a 23-year-old winger who will be a part of the Vancouver Canucks at some point this season. He is a tenacious forechecker who will get the call up to the NHL at some point this season.

The team’s top prospect is their goaltender Mikey DiPietro. After barely playing last season due to COVID affecting the rosters and schedule, DiPietro is not the team’s starter and projects to be the Vancouver Canucks’ backup goalie next season. DiPietro was Canada’s goalie at the 2019 World Junior Championships and was a part of Canada’s gold-medal-winning World Championship team last year.

The Abbotsford Canucks are coached by Trent Cull, who is in his fifth year as the head coach of the AHL affiliate for the Canucks.

The move to Abbotsford from Utica made so much sense.

Having the minor league team so close to home allows the NHL squad to call up or send down players without much travel needed. The teams can make a quick swap down Highway-1 when a transaction between the NHL and AHL is needed.

The move to Abbotsford is also great for local fans of the Canucks organization. It’s an expensive night for Canucks fans in the Fraser Valley if there were to travel into Vancouver to watch the NHL team. Now, they have the AHL team right at home in the Fraser Valley.

It’s some of the best hockey you will see with a lot of future or past NHLers playing in the AHL.

The Abbotsford Canucks currently sit with a 4-5-3 record and had last weekend’s games cancelled due to the flooding in the Abbotsford area. The team is back in action next week and has a ton of games at the Abbotsford centre over the next handful of months.

Through a year where things are going bad for the Canucks’ organization as a whole, the minor league team is doing things right and it’s all happening close to home.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *