The Abbotsford Canucks, the new rebranding of the Vancouver Canucks junior hockey club, played their inaugural home game on Oct. 22 against the Henderson Silver Knights. The game showed Fraser Valley fans a new face of professional hockey and Vancouver’s new affiliated farm team.
A “farm team” is the name of a junior level sports team or club that is owned by a higher-level parent team. Farm teams house and train the young drafted players, as well as rehabilitate players coming off of serious injuries. These teams give players experience in the professional atmosphere that comes with sports while they wait to be called up to the parent leagues. Every team in the National Hockey League (NHL) has a farm team. The majority of these teams play in the American Hockey League (AHL).
Abbotsford is only an hour’s drive away from Rogers Arena, and is perfect for both faces of the affiliation. Abbotsford’s close proximity to Vancouver means that both the junior and NHL clubs will be able to interact and practice together more often, and the Juniors will be fresher when they get called up for a game. In case of an injury during a Vancouver game, Abbotsford’s close proximity means that a player no longer has to travel across an entire continent when called up to play in an emergency.
Previously, the Vancouver Canucks’ farm team was the New York-based Utica Comets, with one of the longest distances between a parent and their farm team — over 4,500 kilometres. If the Canucks had an unexpected injury before a 7:00 p.m. game on home ice, the junior player had to catch a seven-hour or longer flight between Vancouver and their nearest international airport in Syracuse, N.Y. Now, unexpected and immediate call-ups for junior players can be handled in an hour during a home game. Abbotsford’s international airport will also help speed up the travel times for away games. The Abbotsford and Vancouver Canucks’ respective head coaches, Trent Cull and Travis Green, and the training and medical staff will have hands-on experience training both teams and be able to provide immediate assistance and updates on rehabilitating players. Having the teams be next-door neighbours will help keep Vancouver healthier to match the competition in their NHL division.
The Fraser Valley could also play a crucial role, and potentially be a player, in the growing professional hockey community of the Pacific Northwest. Seattle just got a new NHL team, the Seattle Kraken, and the debut of their own farm team in Palm Springs is being delayed until 2022. Vancouver’s new rivals in the Pacific Division are currently sharing the Charlotte Checkers with the Florida Panthers. If the organization still has trouble finding land, or Palm Springs proves not to be as profitable a location for hockey, Abbotsford’s ability to show the continuous benefits of having a farm team close by, as well as be a profitable organization, could lead to more AHL teams looking to make their homes nearby. As the NHL looks to expand, choosing locations for professional teams will come down to profitable regions and successful teams. Abbotsford could spearhead expansions of NHL and affiliated farm teams into the Pacific Northwest.
More professional teams within the NHL and AHL Pacific Divisions allow the youth minor hockey leagues the chance to parallel the juniors. Youth can watch and learn from the junior professionals and see how they skate, handle the puck, and grow on and off the ice. The affordable general admission seats start at $25 each for the Abbotsford Canucks and provide amazing value; parents can take their kids to games, and students at UFV can catch games after classes. The Fraser Valley will easily fill the stands of the Abbotsford Centre to be able to condition the junior players for their most important job: playing to the best of their abilities in front of sold-out crowds filled with thunderous fans. There are few places in the Fraser Valley that can do it as Abbotsford can.
Image: Abbotsford Canucks
Teryn Midzain is an English Major with ambitious goals to write movies and a full-time nerd, whose personality and eccentrics run on high-octane like the cars he loves. More importantly, Teryn loves sports [Formula One], and doesn’t care who knows. When not creating and running deadly schemes in his D&D sessions, Teryn tries to reach the core of what makes the romantic and dramatic World of Sports, the characters and people that make the events so spectacular.
