By Joel Smart (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: April 10, 2013
While many Abbotsford residents appreciate hockey for hockey’s sake, a large portion of Canucks fans don’t want to develop favourite players that can get called up to the NHL to play for the Calgary Flames – against Vancouver’s team.
Because British Columbians are so Canuck-mad, it was never going to be easy to convince them to cheer for the up-and-coming stars of an opposing team. And the Flames have always been a major villain for the Canucks – division rivals, playoff foes and a springboard for inter-provincial trash talking. This has been the issue ever since the Calgary Flames brought their farm team to Abbotsford in 2009.
Fans would rather cheer for the AHL team with future Canucks players (a team that used to be called the Manitoba Moose, moved and renamed the Chicago Wolves in 2011). So ever since the Heat moved to Abbotsford, rumours have been swirling about a potential “team swap” that would move the Canucks’ farm team to Abbotsford. The benefits would be obvious – a guaranteed fan base and extreme ease for management of the Canucks to keep an eye on their prospects. That’s not to mention the quick drive to Vancouver for prospects called up to play for the Canucks when needed.
The most recent rumour, as cited by The Province and the Vancouver Sun, was that the Calgary Flames were considering packing up and moving their team to Utica, New York. The rumour suggested that the Vancouver Canucks would then buy the Peoria Rivermen, the St. Louis’ farm team that plays in Illinois, and then St. Louis would take over the Chicago Wolves. It seems complicated, but the end result is that the Flames would end up in New York, allowing the relocated Rivermen to move to Abbotsford.
One part of the rumour came true on April 1. The Canucks, who didn’t renew contracts with Chicago, purchased the Peoria Rivermen. Due to the rumour, many have complete confidence that the team-swap will indeed occur at the end of the current season.
The Calgary Flames, however, have done their best to quash the speculation. In statement released April 2, reported by PostMedia News, the Flames denied that they were moving. “… We wish to emphasize that there is no ‘three-way deal’ (or any other deal) that will see the Canucks move their development program to Abbotsford … we remain committed to our fans and partners in Abbotsford and look forward to sharing many more seasons with them.”
The move by the Canucks to purchase the Rivermen means that the Canucks now fully own their farm team for the first time. “It allows our organization to focus on what we think is really important,” Mike Gillis told reporters on April 1, noting that they don’t always see eye-to-eye with the choices of independent minor-league team owners. “We get to make the decisions now.”
But Gillis was tight-lipped about plans to move the team. “We have made no decisions whatsoever about where that franchise will be, and we do need a little bit of time to go through all the possibilities before we make a decision,” Gillis said, according to the Peoria Journal Star. That report speculated that that the Canucks might leave the team in Peoria for the next season, waiting for Calgary to agree to the swap. Alternately, they suggested, the Canucks might “move the Rivermen to another neighbouring city in the Vancouver area.”
Whatever the case may be, it can’t be denied that most hockey fans in the Fraser Valley are hoping the Heat will agree to a swap.
In just three years, Abbotsford residents have been forced to pay $3.8 million to subsidize the flopping Heat franchise due to the contract the city signed with the team. Meanwhile, 88.29 per cent of voters in an April 1 poll on The Vancouver Sun website said they’d support and attend more games if the Canucks brought the Rivermen to Abbotsford.
Perhaps Abbotsford citizens should be less picky. The Heat are a quality organization with high-end talent like Abbotsford has never seen. We love hockey here and it’s embarrassing that we have some of the lowest attendance in the entire AHL. But for fans of the Canucks, the dream is just too good: The Abbotsford Orcas. The Canucks’ future stars playing in town regularly – seeing your favourite young player make the leap and comprehending the context of everything they’ve done as they do it. No, you can hardly blame fans for dreaming of that.
