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Abbotsford Canucks complete epic comeback to win first-ever Calder Cup

Trevor Beggs
Trevor Beggs
|
Jun 24 2025, 1:39 am
Abbotsford Canucks complete epic comeback to win first-ever Calder Cup
Jacob Kupferman/ Charlotte Checkers

For the first time in 55 years, the Canucks have finally won a championship.

Since the Vancouver Canucks entered the NHL in 1970, they’ve never been crowned a champion. That’s true at both the NHL and AHL level.

That all changed on Monday night.

The Abbotsford Canucks beat the Florida Panthers’ AHL affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers, 3-2 in Game 6 to win the Calder Cup.

As the clock dwindled to zero at the end of this hard fought series, the Canucks poured over the bench to celebrate the first championship in franchise history.

Arturs Silovs, who had another stellar game for Abbotsford, was unsurprisingly named the MVP of the AHL playoffs.

After Silovs accepted the award, Canucks captain Chase Wouters accepted the Calder Cup from AHL commissioner Scott Howson.

It ended up being a historic night for Abbotsford and the Canucks organization, but early on, it looked like this series would be headed to Game 7.

From the outset, Charlotte outshot Abbotsford 11-3 early on and built a 2-0 lead late in the first period.

However, a power play goal by Sammy Blais cut the lead to 2-1 before the end of the first period.

Then, Abbotsford got to work.

The Canucks started to press in the second period, and were rewarded with a greasy goal from Danila Klimovich.

Then, Linus Karlsson scored what ended up being the Calder Cup winning goal, capping off an absolutely dominant shift from the Karlsson, Max Sasson, Arshdeep Bains line.

Silovs shut the door the rest of the way, leading to a historic night for the Canucks franchise.

Canucks led by the young guns

The AHL is a developmental league, but often it’s the veteran players that lead the way.

That wasn’t the case in Abbotsford.

The Canucks were the 11th-youngest team in the AHL this season, with an average age of 24.4 years old. However, a lot of their younger players ended up leading the way.

That starts with Silovs. The 24-year-old Latvian was a rock for the Canucks throughout this postseason. He ends his stellar postseason run with a 2.01 goals against average, a .930 save percentage and five shutouts.

After allowing the first two goals of the game, he shut the door with 19 straight saves the rest of the way.

Up front, the line of Karlsson, Sasson and Bains was Abbotsford’s best in the Calder Cup Finals. Karlsson, the eldest of the trio at 25-years-old, led the AHL with 14 goals and 26 points in 24 games.

Bains finished second in AHL postseason scoring with 24 points in 26 games. That included scoring seven goals in his final eight games.

The Surrey native was handed the Calder Cup by fellow Surrey native Jujhar Khaira, someone who Bains skated with as a kid.

Sasson finished with five goals in 14 points in 26 games, which was top-10 in AHL playoff scoring. His impact was felt beyond that, as he was a key player defensively and a top penalty killer for the Canucks as well.

On defence, the Canucks had two young players who made a massive impact.

Victor Mancini, acquired in the J.T. Miller trade back in January, often looked like a man amongst boys at the AHL level. The 23-year-old often skated on Abbotsford’s top pairing alongside Guillaume Brisebois, and played on the first unit penalty kill as well. He had a number of flashes these playoffs where he rushed up the ice with speed and created offence. That, combined with his reads and strength on the boards gives him legitimate NHL potential.

There was also 21-year-old Kirill Kudryatvsev, an AHL rookie who’s stock rose throughout the postseason. He led all AHLers with a +18. The next closest player in the league finished with a +11.

That’s all without mentioning Ty Mueller, another AHL rookie, who held down a top-six centre role throughout the playoffs, and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, who has the highest potential among anyone of the Canucks roster.

The team will celebrate their hard-fought championship win, after winning five series in the AHL playoffs.

Up in Vancouver, the Canucks can also feel pretty good about the fact that they have a handful of young players who have a legitimate shot at helping the NHL squad out in the near future.

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