And the Abbotsford AHL team will be called … the Canucks!
Johnny Canuck #JohnnyCanuck
The Vancouver Canucks played it safe with the name and logo of their new Abbotsford-based American Hockey League affiliate, set to start play this fall, confirming their minor-league affiliate will simply be called the Abbotsford Canucks.
In a short video released on social media, the Canucks are set to use the historic “Johnny Canuck” logo as the AHL team’s primary brand. The head of the logo was last seen on the shoulders of the Canucks’ third jersey used from 2008 to 2017, but the full logo was used on fan merchandise over the past decade, after the Canucks secured its use from the original designer, who created the logo for the Western Hockey League-era Canucks.
“To have this finally out for fans in Abbotsford and the Canucks organization, this is a huge step for us. We’re excited about having our American League affiliate right in our backyard,” Ryan Johnson, the Abbotsford Canucks’ general manager, said on a media Zoom session Wednesday.
“We’re thrilled to unveil Abbotsford’s new AHL brand,” Francesco Aquilini, chairman of Canucks Sports and Entertainment, said in a statement. “The Abbotsford Canucks will be an extension of our history, and a new identity for fans in the Fraser Valley to embrace. Today marks an important milestone. It brings us a big step closer to puck drop in the fall and an exciting inaugural season.”
“The Abbotsford Canucks’ brand reflects the long history, local connection and new opportunities that this team brings to our community,” said Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun. “I am looking forward to joining all of the fans in cheering on our new hometown team.”
The team is in the middle of hiring a number of new staff, doing some reconfiguring of the Abbotsford Centre itself as well as filling out the team’s roster, which will be a mix of prospects and more veteran players, Johnson said.
“A lot of moving parts that everyone is extremely excited about,” he said.
Moving the team away from New York state, where the Utica Comets made most of their road trips by bus and were often able to travel home post game, to B.C. and the California-based Pacific Division means every road trip will now require flying, something that will cut into practice time for the AHL club.
“We’re going to have more overall travel but less of a grind,” Johnson said, highlighting the fact that the Pacific Division’s schedule is actually eight games shorter than what the Comets played, and that there will be few, if any, three-games-in-three-days scenarios, which were common in the AHL’s North Division.
“It’s not as daunting as I thought it may be,” he said of the first draft of the team’s schedule that he’s seen. “I don’t think we’ll lose as much practice time as I anticipated, which for me is as important as anything in the American Hockey League.
“And that was the one thing about playing in the east: You spend a lot more time back in your own bed, which allows you to have quality practices and that’s very important to me because I’m all about our resources, what we’re able to do through a long week of practice with our skating and skills coaches.”
The Canucks describe the new team’s colours as “field green, Pacific blue, Fraser Blue, valley fog grey and mountain white, representing the area that the Abbotsford Canucks will proudly play for.”
The primary dark sweater is green, while the secondary sweater is white.
The Abbotsford Canucks will be the seventh AHL team to share its name with its NHL parent club, following the Bridgeport Islanders (New York), Providence Bruins (Boston), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh), Belleville Senators (Ottawa), Iowa Wild (Minnesota) and the Texas Stars (Dallas).
Team merchandise is now available for purchase from the online team store.
The Canucks formalized an agreement with the City of Abbotsford last month to play out of the Abbotsford Centre as well as manage the facility .
The Canucks’ AHL team played in Utica for the past eight years and were called the Comets, though their basic uniform design followed the Canucks’ template. They did create unique one-off and third jerseys, which all proved popular with Utica fans.
FARMED OUT — The Canucks’ ECHL affiliation with the Kalamazoo Wings still has one more year to run, Johnson confirmed to Postmedia. The ECHL team typically is used to give games to younger Canucks-contracted players on the AHL roster who haven’t been playing much, often the organization’s fifth goaltender for instance.
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