Canucks announce training camp plans in Victoria

The Canucks are headed to Vancouver Island, as the team revealed training camp plans in Victoria this afternoon.

Training camp will run from September 21 to 25, with on-ice sessions being held at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, home of the WHL’s Victoria Royals.

Practices will be free and open to the public, and the Canucks say they’ll have other “free activations” on site as well, to be announced at a later date.

“We are delighted to be heading to Victoria for Training Camp in September,” said Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. “The Vancouver Canucks have had a long history of holding Training Camp on Vancouver Island and throughout other parts of British Columbia. Taking our team outside of Vancouver to start the year allows us to connect with our loyal fans from across the province. We look forward to utilizing Victoria’s great facilities and beautiful surroundings to kick off the new season.”

This is the third straight year the Canucks have held training camp outside of Vancouver, with Whistler hosting last year and Abbotsford hosting in 2021.

The last time the Canucks went to Victoria for training camp was in 2019, the same season the team last made the playoffs.

“Victoria fans are passionate about their hockey,” explained Mike Strawn, VP of sports, media, and entertainment at GSL Group, which owns Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre. “We are thrilled to host the Canucks Training Camp at our facility and help bring this calibre of hockey to the community.”

Canucks management was displeased with the team’s training camp last season under Bruce Boudreau, so it’ll be interesting to see how on-ice sessions differ under new head coach Rick Tocchet. Tocchet has spoken multiple times about the sacrifices players will need to make this summer in order to be ready for next season, which has played into the Canucks’ new marketing slogan: next season starts now.

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