There will be playoff hockey in the Lower Mainland this year – just not of the NHL variety. The Vancouver Canucks are not playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Abbotsford are set to face off against the Tucson Roadrunners in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. The Canucks locked up second place in the Pacific Division on Saturday with their 5-3 win over the Ontario Reign and will go into the postseason on a remarkable 16-1-1 run, hoping to quickly dispatch the Roadrunners in the best-of-three series and move on to the Division Semi Finals.
The Roadrunners, meanwhile, had to wait until the final game of the regular season to lock up their playoff spot. The odds weren’t in their favour, but they ended up winning both of their games on the weekend against the division champion Colorado Eagles and snuck in using the tiebreaker over the Bakersfield Condors. Both teams finished with 74 points, but the Roadrunners had five more regulation wins.
So, with no chance of a Stanley Cup parade in Vancouver this year, all eyes will be on Abbotsford to see if the baby Canucks can win the next best thing, the Calder Cup. Let’s dive into some prospects to watch during this first-round series.
Danila Klimovich
If there were an award for bounceback player of the year, it would definitely go to Danila Klimovich. He went from only two goals last season to a career-high 25 this season and reestablished himself as a top prospect for the Canucks. He wasn’t in my top 15 at the beginning of the season, but I can tell you right now he will be in the top 10, maybe even top five when it gets updated after the NHL Draft. When he was drafted back in 2021, his calling card was his lethal shot, soft hands, and creativity. He showcased that many times in Abbotsford this season, especially his wrist shot, which, as mentioned, got him a team-leading 25 goals. The Canucks will need him to continue his scoring ways in the playoffs as they might have to outscore the Roadrunners, who boast four 20-goal scorers.
Jonathan Lekkerimaki
After coming over from Sweden last season and playing six games in the AHL, Jonathan Lekkerimaki started the 2024-25 campaign in Abbotsford and quickly became one of the Canucks’ top scorers. He even got called up to Vancouver at various points of the season and finished with three goals and six points in 24 games. And even with that extended time in the NHL, he still managed to score 19 goals in 36 games in the AHL. Like Klimovich, his shot was his signature attribute in both places, but more so in the AHL where he got prime time on the power play in his “office” near the left hashmarks. Abbotsford fans might want to get out to see him now, though, since he likely will be in the NHL full-time next season, especially if Brock Boeser leaves in free agency.
Aatu Raty
The same goes for Aatu Raty. Due to injuries to top centres Elias Pettersson and Filip Chytil, he was pushed into top-six action in Vancouver and became the go-to pivot for head coach Rick Tocchet down the stretch. Unless general manager Patrik Allvin works some magic in the offseason and obtains a legitimate second-line centre, he will be in the mix for that job again next season. But for now, he’s still Abbotsford’s top-line centre and will be key to their Calder Cup hopes. He almost split his time evenly between Abbotsford and Vancouver, logging 43 and 33 games respectively, and recording an impressive 17 goals and 40 points in the AHL and seven goals and 11 points in the NHL.
Raty has all the tools to become a Bo Horvat-like centre in the NHL, capable of winning draws consistently and providing a Swiss Army knife presence in all situations, from the power play and penalty kill to taking key faceoffs at the end of the game. While we don’t know his faceoff percentage in the AHL, he acquitted himself quite nicely in the big leagues, winning 57.7 percent of his draws. He also provided a lot of physicality, throwing 80 hits in only 33 games. Suffice it to say, if Abbotsford’s going anywhere in the playoffs, it will be on the back of the 6-foot-2 Finn.
Linus Karlsson
Rounding out the trio of impressive call-ups this season is another Swede, Linus Karlsson. He finished just behind Klimovich in goals with 23, marking his third straight season with 20 or more. He’s been remarkably consistent offensively since coming over from Sweden in 2022-23, and now has 70 goals in his AHL career. Like his fellow Scandinavians, he also spent a lot of time in the NHL, playing 23 games and scoring his first three goals in the league. While he doesn’t appear to have the ceiling of a top-six forward like Raty and Lekkerimaki, he has proven to be – at the very least – a capable NHLer who can grind it out in the corners and at the front of the net to score 10–15 goals consistently from the bottom of the lineup.
Fortunately for the Abbotsford faithful, they won’t be watching the bottom-six version of Karlsson in the Calder Cup Playoffs, but the elite scorer who just broke the franchise record for game-winning goals and won the team’s MVP award. Like Raty, he will be a huge part of any push for the Calder Cup.
Kirill Kudryavtsev
Kirill Kudryavtsev is starting to look like one of the steals of the 2022 Draft. Selected 208th overall, he is now the only player drafted in the seventh round from his draft class to play an NHL game. He got into the final two games of the regular season in Vancouver and looked calm and composed in his 28:16 of ice time. In the AHL, he had a standout rookie campaign, recording five goals and 26 points in 65 games alongside a plus-18 in the plus/minus column. He has somewhat surprisingly become a legitimate part of the future of the Canucks’ blue line, and will also be someone to watch in the higher pressure atmosphere of the AHL Playoffs. If his production in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) is any indication (12 points in 22 games), he could be an underrated piece of whatever success Abbotsford has in the next week – and hopefully beyond.
Who Will Move On to the Division Semi-Finals?
The season series favoured the Roadrunners 5-3-0, but the Canucks have been on such a heater that it feels they will take this in three games. They also have home ice all the way through, and with the Roadrunners’ mediocre 15-19-1-1 record on the road and the Canucks’ 24-11-0-1 record in the friendly confines of Abbotsford Centre, they should be able to ride the crowd to the Division Semi Finals. It should be noted, though, that the Roadrunners did fare pretty well in Abbotsford this season, grabbing three of their five wins in hostile territory.
All in all, it should be a fun series that could be pretty high-scoring considering the firepower both sides have. It likely will come down to goaltending and defence, and with the Canucks’ stingy team defence at home (tied for the fewest goals against in the Pacific and tied for third in the league), they might have the edge in this one. That is, if the season series isn’t an indication of how things will go.
