Are the Abbotsford Canucks bad because of Vancouver?

Short answer: No

Long answer: It's complicated.

As of right now, there are currently eight players on the Vancouver Canucks roster who played on the Abbotsford Canucks either last season or this season. Two of those players have not played a game in the AHL this season, three players including those two have played less than five games in the AHL this season.

That is a third of the active roster on the Vancouver Canucks right now on January 27th, 2026.

In addition to the eight players currently on the Vancouver roster, six other players currently in Abbotsford have been called up to Vancouver at one point in the 2025/26 season. That makes a total of 14 players having been taken from Abbotsford to Vancouver since the end of the last AHL season.

Linus Karlsson, Aatu Räty, Max Sasson, Elias Petersson (Defence), Tom Willander, Victor Mancini, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Nikita Tolopilo, Arshdeep Bains, Jiří Patera, Joseph LaBate, Nils Åman, Mackenzie MacEachern, and Kirill Kudryavtsev. They are great players worthy of being called up, but 14 players over the course of around four months tends to hit the team they're taking players from.

Abbotsford Canucks are sitting at a 15-22-3-3 right now. Having gone on a league wide record breaking losing streak early in the season. That is coincidentally when majority of the call-ups happened as well as Abbotsford being hit by their own injury bug. Abbotsford primarily was being held together by a few of their Calder Cup champs, AHL veterans that had been signed in the offseason, PTOs, and ECHL affiliate call-ups. A team confusing for both the fans and players.

Is this an excuse for their extended loss streak? No, but it is an explaination on what had been going on.

So how does this relate to the Vancouver Canucks?

Management.

Now, half the Vancouver roster being injured or taken out early in the season is no fault of anyone. With the condensed season, we had been seeing more frequent injuries from all over the league. Vancouver not even being the most injury prone team. However, a lot of the call-ups were not playing many games in the NHL or were playing with a reduced utility and time on ice.

Some players were called up simply to be healthy scratches— which is common, but can hurt the confidence and development of a younger player. It also leads to call-ups that directly hurt the Abbotsford roster, leaving them without many players to even put into their lineup.

Abbotsford has had to use an EBUG three times this season. Once in Colorado with CJ Kier, once in Coachella Valley with Kevin Bligh, and once in Abbotsford with Alex Kotai.

Abbotsford has also had to run a 17 skater lineup, with one of the forwards on the two-man fourth line being one of the defensemen Phip Waugh. This was not directly the fault of Vancouver, mainly injuries, but the fact Vancouver had a good amount of Abbotsford players on their roster during this time, it did not help.

It's easy to look at the decisions that come with calling up players to Vancouver as a decision made without any regard to how it may affect the Abbotsford Canucks. They're a team that is only a two hour drive away and are hardly far even on road games. A NHL team will always be a priority, this is true, it's more the fact that it seems like their AHL team— a Calder Championship team— is seen as something to take from rather than cultivate something better for the prospects they are taking. A team to be gutted for the benefit of Vancouver with no thought on how it may affect the team being gutted.

But the main issues with management come from development.

Vancouver has gone on record to say they are working on rebuilding, to focus on their younger players, however a lot of the data isn't there. It's not likely or expected for their vets to be scratched in favour of the younger call-ups, however even the younger players in the lineup were getting a reduced TOI. Aatu Räty is a healthy scratch more often than not, Max Sasson and Linus Karlsson have been moved around but are mainly on the fourth line, Jonathan Lekkerimäki had a significant reduced TOI and put in a bottom 6 role, Victor Mancini is seen to have a reduced role and time in the NHL even after Vancouver said they were planning on rotating their young dmen out, and the rotation of Nikita Tolopilo and Jiří Patera doesn't mean much when neither of the two are starting many games anyway.

Their words don't match the actions. Injuries and sickness are out of their control, but allow for more opportunity with their younger prospects. Especially with the way this season is turning out.

Some players may even benefit from having a full AHL season instead. Lekkerimäki has been a topic in that sense, of if his consistency is an issue in the NHL even if he's doing incredible in the AHL. It seems they believe it anyway, with 10 other players who they have the rights to and could theoretically be called up that haven't been yet.

That's not even getting into the degree of which Lukas Reichel's NHL development had been ruined by Vancouver not allowing him to play to his own strengths before being sent down.

The Abbotsford Canucks will most likely miss the playoffs. They are seven points away from tying the team in the spot they would need to sneak in, with the least amount of games remaining of any team in the division. That can be attributed to their awful start of being forced to play without many of their top players via call-ups, sickness, and injury.

The Vancouver Canucks will miss the playoffs. Most likely not even hitting 90 points this season. The Olympics coming up could give an opportunity to younger players as the AHL does not break while the NHL does, however it's unlikely Vancouver will make any moves before the roster freeze.

Are the Vancouver Canucks to blame for Abbotsford being bad this season? Not exactly.

Could Vancouver have done more for Abbotsford? Absolutely.