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Abbotsford Canucks General Manager, Ryan Johnson, announced today that the club has signed goaltender Jonathan Lemieux to a one-year contract extension ahead of the 2024-25 AHL season.

“Jonathan had a very productive rookie season with Kalamazoo, and we are happy with the progression we have seen him achieve over the past year,” said Johnson. “We are looking forward to having him continue to provide value and depth for us at the goaltending position.”

Lemieux, 23, spent the entirety of the 2023-24 under contract to Abbotsford while on loan to the club’s ECHL affiliate Kalamazoo Wings. As a rookie, he led Kalamazoo’s goalies in games played (39) and saves (1,036) while ranking third among ECHL rookies in save percentage (.911). He commanded a 17-16-3 record during the regular season along with a 2.84 goals-against average and two shutouts. He played one Kelly Cup Playoff game for Kalamazoo, before being recalled by Abbotsford after the Wings were eliminated in the first round of the postseason.

Originally acquired as an undrafted free agent, the Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec native played one season at Concordia University (U Sports) where he earned OUA East division honours as Goaltender of the Year and Rookie of the Year in 2022-23. He also spent five major junior seasons in the QMJHL with Val-d’Or, Saint John and Moncton, earning QMJHL Second Team All-Star honours in 2020-21.


Abbotsford Canucks General Manager, Ryan Johnson, announced that the club has signed goaltender Jonathan Lemieux to a one-year contract extension.

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CANUCKS SIGN LEMIEUX TO ONE-YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION

Abbotsford Canucks General Manager, Ryan Johnson, announced today that the club has signed forward and team captain Chase Wouters to a two-year contract extension through the end of the 2025-26 AHL season.

“Chase has been an integral part of growing and maintaining the culture we want here in Abbotsford,” said Johnson. “His contributions on and off the ice are a testament to both his abilities and his character. We are thrilled that Chase has committed to leading this team and continuing to develop within our organization.”

Wouters, 24, has spent the entirety of his professional career with Abbotsford to date, having joined the club during its inaugural season in 2021-22. He has served as captain for the past two seasons, and is Abbotsford’s franchise leader in all-time regular season games played (196), postseason games played (14) and postseason penalty minutes (21).

The 6-0, 185-pound centre has been the recipient of the club’s “Man of the Year Award” in back-to-back seasons (2022-23 and 2023-24) as Abbotsford’s nominee for the AHL’s Yanick Dupré Memorial Award for his outstanding contributions to his local community and charitable organizations. Wouters has notably volunteered with the Chilliwack Bowls of Hope Society, visited patients at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre, championed the Abbotsford Canucks KidsPlay Skate, and supported countless other charitable and non-profit organizations in the Fraser Valley.

“I’m incredibly thrilled to return to Abbotsford for another two years,” said Wouters. “It’s a true honour to extend this journey alongside the amazing teammates, fans and staff. I’m looking forward to seeing them all soon.”

A native of Lloydminster, Alberta, Wouters originally joined the organization by signing a one-year AHL contract on July 22, 2021. Wouters was acquired as a free agent after completing his overage major junior campaign with the Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League. In a combined eight seasons between Saskatoon and Abbotsford, he has served five seasons as captain of his team.


General Manager, Ryan Johnson, announced today that the club has signed forward and team captain Chase Wouters to a two-year contract extension.

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CANUCKS SIGN WOUTERS TO TWO-YEAR AHL CONTRACT EXTENSION

Manny Malhotra was 60 seconds removed from a call with Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet when he hopped on the line to chat about his new role as the head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks. 

“He’s a ‘what you see is what you get’ kind of guy and is deeply passionate about the game,” said Malhotra about Tocchet. “He loves the game, loves his players, and wants to see them be successful.”

Tocchet let Malhotra know that his phone is always open for a call and that there is an elevated level of expectation for development at the AHL level from this current Canucks management team. 

“Tocc was expressing how well the Abbotsford-Vancouver connection is working in the short time that he's been with the Canucks. I'm looking forward to working with Tocc and picking his brain on the way he sees the game. You can see their level of play is just the way the game is going, and I want to learn how he got them to buy into that system,” said Malhotra. 

After an NHL career that spanned 16 seasons and saw 991 games played, Malhotra moved into a development role with the Vancouver Canucks before the 2016-17 season. He moved on to be an assistant coach with the Canucks from 2017-2020 and then took on a role with the Toronto Maple Leafs as an assistant coach from 2020-2024. 

“Having been an assistant for years now; learning from different coaches, seeing things that work and don't work – I feel that it is time to implement those things and run my own shop and take that next step in my career,” said Malhotra. “So obviously, coming to an organization that I'm familiar with makes things a lot easier and knowing the people that I get a chance to work with makes it exciting. I am really looking forward to it.” 

Two of the people Malhotra is familiar with are Daniel and Henrik Sedin. The two Hall of Famers spend plenty of time out in Abbotsford working on a variety of developmental projects. They have committed a lot of their time to making the Canucks’ AHL-NHL pipeline strong and we are beginning to see the work show up at the NHL level – Arshdeep Bains, Linus Karlsson, and Nils Höglander being a couple of examples this past season. 

Malhotra will be running his shop which features many young players. 

Elias Pettersson, Kirill Kudryavtsev, Josh Bloom, Aätu Räty, Danila Klimovich, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, and Ty Mueller are all examples of players who are 21 or younger and will be in the most important developmental years of their young hockey careers. 

There are also plenty of 22 to 25-year-olds who are on the brink of getting their first chance at the NHL level or potentially even earning a full-time job at the NHL level if the scenario arises. 

Malhotra believes that these young players take the next step in their game once they understand the life that comes with being a pro player. He calls it ‘learned behaviour’ and that it’s about having a dedicated focus instead of just showing up for practice time. These players have skill, but a focus of Malhotra’s is going to be showing these players the way that will not only get them to the NHL but be able to stay there once they make it. 

“My mantra for myself for my team, especially a young team, is the mindset of, we got to be better than yesterday and just focus on daily improvements as a group. For me, that goes a long way. That means your practice habits get better, the intensity gets sharper, and you're better from one game to the next. If you have that mentality of incrementally getting better on a daily basis, over the course of time, that results in some major achievements and major differences in your team,” he said. 

Taking a wider lens on the AHL situation, Malhotra is excited about the augmented expectations and higher pressure that is coming from management for success in their AHL development. He takes it on as a privilege to be trusted to work with these young players in achieving their goals. 

“First off, pressure is a privilege. For me personally, it would not be fun if there was no pressure involved. If there was no mandate to be successful or no mandate to produce players and help players get to that next level. It wouldn't be fun for me. I feel a great level of gratitude and am very thankful that they trusted me enough to be a part of it. I know how important the AHL development piece is for the organization and for them to entrust me with that, I take a lot of pride in that,” Malhotra said.

“So, right from there, it makes me want to be successful and that makes me want to prove to them that they were right with their decision. I want to help this organization continue down that path of developing young players and getting them in uniforms.” 

Malhotra knows that the AHL can be a massive boost to an NHL team in the current salary cap era and he is excited to be a big part of the organization developing from within. 

“I think the importance on AHL development is a product of the NHL cap system. You cannot just continue to sign and buy players at free agency time; you need to develop players within your system to be able to be cap-compliant and get players on a good deal at a good number. You have to be able to grow those players from within your organization. It's a product of what is necessary right now. And teams can't just go out and buy the player they want. You have to develop them from within.”

Malhotra has focused on learning in his eight years of experience in development and coaching. 

He believes that the individual is the focus of development but that the team helps guide an individual in the right direction. 

“Everybody learns differently. It's a new generation of players in terms of the way they interpret information, the way they receive information, the way they learn. You have to be aware of your audience. And that's part of the job that I really enjoy. Learning about the guys, and learning about the individual, what makes them tick, how they learn how they understand things,” said Malhotra. 

“From there, I like being able to implement those things and help them understand the message, understand the system, understand what we are trying to get out of them. The biggest thing for me is just understanding the individual and you have to be able to get through on various levels.” 

Returning to the West Coast also works so well for Manny Malhotra.

He is comfortable with his co-workers, has learned so much about developing players in his post-playing days, has coaching experience in the NHL with Vancouver and Toronto, and is now excited about taking the reins on this next challenge and a new challenge, as a head coach in the AHL.

Aside from hockey, Malhotra is excited about going back to B.C. and named the scenery and sushi as the two things he is excited to be amongst as a British Columbian. 

“It’s a different vibe on the West Coast, that is for sure. I am excited for good sushi again. My family kind of became sushi snobs ever since we were living in Vancouver. I’m also excited about getting back to living that outdoorsy lifestyle. Scenery and sushi. I can’t wait.”

‘Pressure is a Privilege’: Abbotsford Head Coach Manny Malhotra Embraces High Expectations for AHL Development

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Abbotsford, BC – The American Hockey League (AHL) announced today its 2024.25 regular season schedule. The Abbotsford Canucks will open their season in Calgary on Friday, October 11, for a two-game set, before heading to Loveland, CO on Friday, October 18 to take on the Colorado Eagles on the 18th and 19th. Abbotsford’s home opener is set for Friday, October 25 at 7:00pm when the Canucks host the San Diego Gulls. 

Following the two-game set against the Gulls on October 25 and 26, Abbotsford will host the Tucson Roadrunners on October 29 and 30, with both games starting at 7:00pm. 

[Click here](https://abbotsford.canucks.com/schedule) for the complete list of dates and opponents for the 2024.25 regular season. 

**Key Matchup Info** 

Abbotsford will both start and end the season on the road, with their first four games away from Abbotsford Centre and their last three matchups taking place in Southern California (Bakersfield, Coachella Valley, and Ontario, respectively). 

Of Abbotsford’s 72 games, 64 of them will be played against Pacific Division opponents. The eight games versus non-division opponents are splits between the Manitoba Moose (two home, two road) and the Laval Rocket (two home, two road). 

The division rival Calgary Wranglers will face Abbotsford more than any other opponent. Both teams will open their respective campaigns in Calgary when facing off on October 11, while Abbotsford will host the Wranglers in three two-game sets, including their final two home games of the season on April 11 and 12. 

**Season at a Glance **

Familiar Faces: Former Vancouver Canuck Manny Malhotra re-joins the organization as Abbotsford’s new Head Coach while captain Chase Wouters returns for a fourth season, having signed a two-year contract extension. Wouters and returning alternate captain John Stevens are both expected to reach their 200th regular season games played milestones for Abbotsford in 2024.25 as they represent the franchise’s top two longest tenured skaters (Wouters - 196 games played, Stevens – 179 games played). 

‘Home Sweet’: Abbotsford will have three season-long six game homestands in 2024.25, with the first starting Saturday, December 7 against Colorado at 7:00pm and ending on Saturday, December 21 versus Tucson at 2:00pm. 

Family SunDAY: Abbotsford’s home schedule features six Sunday games, each of which will have 4:00pm puck drops, a perfect time for the whole family to catch all the action. 

O Canada: Almost 28%, or 20/72 games in 2024.25 will be played against Canadian opponents, Calgary Wranglers, Laval Rocket, and Manitoba Moose. 

Hittin’ the Road: Abbotsford will have two season-long six game road trips in 2024.25, with the first beginning on Tuesday, November 19 in Bakersfield and wrapping up on Saturday, November 30 in San Jose. 

‘California Stars’: The 2025 AHL All-Star Classic will be hosted at Acrisure Arena, home of the Coachella Valley Firebirds in Palm Desert, CA from February 2-3. Last season, the Canucks were represented by Surrey, BC native Arshdeep Bains, who led all scorers in the round-robin style tournament with five points (2-3-5) and was named the All-Star Challenge’s Most Valuable Player. 

To sign up for early-access to single-game tickets, [CLICK HERE](https://tradablebits.com/tb_app/507787
 ). For more information on full season, half season, and mini memberships, [CLICK HERE](https://ticket.abbotsfordcanucks.ca/membership?membership-tab=Full).  

 

ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS ANNOUNCE 2024.25 REGULAR SEASON SCHEDULE 

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Abbotsford Canucks

It was another strong year in North America for Linus Karlsson and with it comes a one-year contract extension with the Vancouver Canucks.

The 24-year-old forward scored 23 goals and added 37 assists to be a point-per-game player in his 60 AHL games. He also made his NHL debut, followed by three more regular season games with the Canucks and a pair of appearances during the playoff run. 

Karlsson has made significant changes to his play style since joining the Abbotsford Canucks before the 2022-23 season. He gives a lot of credit to the Abby coaching staff and the Sedin twins for their work on improving his play around the net and making him tougher in the corners.

“It was a big difference, and I am a different player now,” reminisced Karlsson about his two seasons of pro hockey in North America. “I was always a half-wall player in Sweden and now I’m a net-front guy and I like it more. I like to be there, and I want to be there because that’s where most goals are from. I also had to take big steps on the walls and learn to be better at protecting pucks. And defensively, you’ve got to win battles and protect the net because it’s tighter here.”

The substantial difference that Karlsson has seen is how coaches work with him in Abbotsford is that they are preparing him to be an NHL player. In years past, his strengths were leaned on for production and wins but since he’s joined the Abbotsford Canucks, the focus has been on improving the skills that will give him success at the NHL level.

“The Sedins and Jeff Ulmer have been really helpful for me. I’m always trying to listen to them and do my best so that I can be a full-time player in the NHL. That’s what I want and that’s why I’m working hard to take a step this summer. The main goal is to be stronger overall but also focus on my first three strides — that is what I’m working on right now,” Karlsson said.

The development over his two years in the AHL helped him make his debut at the NHL level, and it was a dream come true for the 6’1” Swede.

“That first lap was amazing, I was trying to take it in because it is something I’ve dreamed about. It was really cool, and something I'm going to remember forever. I was really excited to get that opportunity and it helped me a lot during the season too. To get that first game made me feel like I am close.”

The proximity of Abbotsford to Vancouver helped keep Karlsson motivated. Knowing that management is just a one-hour drive away keeps the players in Abbotsford hungry for what they can achieve with a strong season and commitment to playing Canucks Hockey.

“I like everything about the organization; all the staff, the atmosphere at the rink, the fans, and the city,” said Karlsson. “And in Abbotsford, everyone wants to help you get to the NHL. The organization has done a great job developing me and my game in my two years. So, I'm really excited to come back for my third year now and improve even more to show them how badly I want to be a full-time NHLer.”

Those NHL games opened Karlsson’s eyes to what he must accomplish this summer. He did not waste any time getting back on the ice and is focused on improving his foot speed. With added strength and agility, Karlsson can then use his good shot and strong hands around the crease to make an impact at the NHL level.

His few weeks in the NHL were beneficial for him to develop a relationship with Rick Tocchet and the rest of the Canucks’ coaching staff.

“The coaching staff in Vancouver is so good. I learned so much there and what I liked was how they just wanted to win so badly. The winning mentality was something I liked from the coaches, and they are all winners. You can see it from how they teach the small details. It was great to see how hard everyone works and that is somewhere I really want to be.”

This summer presents an opportunity for Karlsson to hone his craft and continue to build towards achieving his goal of becoming a full-time NHL player. He wants to make an impact at Canucks training camp and show that he can be a versatile player who can contribute on both special teams' units and be trusted in his own zone at even strength. 

Karlsson is spending his summer back in Sweden. Aside from working out and skating, he has been around his family a ton and is enjoying the time he gets to spend with them after being away for most of the year. 

As for his Canucks family, Karlsson is spending a lot of time with Nils Höglander. The two don't live very far away from each other and spend some of their downtime fishing. They are joined by Nils Åman from time to time when he comes to visit.

After a pair of strong developmental seasons in the AHL, Karlsson is ready to take on the next step and try to turn his cup of coffee in the NHL into a full season at the highest level.

‘I’m a different player now’: Linus Karlsson Continues Taking Steps Towards NHL

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Jonathan Lekkerimäki performed at a higher level this season and showed why he was deserving to be selected 15th overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.

He was named Most Valuable Player of the World Junior Championships, had the most goals, assists, and points in the SHL from a player under the age of 20, and got himself a six-game AHL stint to get used to the North American pro game.

All-in-all, the year went quite well for the youngster who will turn 20 this July.

Health was a major factor in the turnaround for Lekkerimäki. He was able to build muscle last summer and keep it on so that he could be reliable throughout the year with his SHL club Örebro.

He scored 19 goals and added 12 assists in the season but was most proud of how he took steps on the defensive side of the ice.

“I improved my play off the puck and my overall game,” said Lekkerimäki about what progression he is most proud of this season. “I think that was where I took the biggest step last year.”

Lekkerimäki enjoyed his SHL season and believes that he took the right steps in development at this point in his career. While putting in the work and improving his play without the puck is most important, he also admitted that it is fun to score goals.

The 19-year-old worked his way into the AHL lineup for six games this past season and notched a goal and an assist with the Abbotsford Canucks. Though his time was short with Abbotsford, he learned a lot of valuable lessons and feels that the time spent in the AHL will help him hit the ground running in the fall.

“It was a good experience for me to play a few games in the AHL and I learned that it's a tough league, it is a fast league and [there is] a lot of physical play. It was good to play in those types of games,” Lekkerimäki said.

This summer is an important one for the young winger as he looks to transition his game to playing in a smaller rink full-time. Lekkerimäki has never prepared for a season of pro hockey in North America but did learn a lot about what worked well for him to stay physically fit and healthy last season.

He did not take much time off for the offseason and started his offseason training at the end of May. This long runway will give Lekkerimäki a chance to come into training camp and show that he can fit in with the NHL and AHL players at camp.

“I need to get stronger and bigger so I can take some hits and make some hits too,” said Lekkerimäki about coming over the pond and playing in North America. “I like to be a physical player, maybe the most when I’m mad.”

Improving his skating is another offseason goal for Lekkerimäki so that he will be able to create space for himself in the North American game.

When asked about what he wants to show to the Canucks’ coaches at training camp, Lekkerimäki spoke about wanting to display his strengths and letting them see the type of player that he can be.

One of the strengths of Lekkerimäki’s game is his work on the man advantage. He primarily played the left half-wall in the SHL but saw time in the bumper with Abbotsford in his AHL stint.

“I love playing with the puck on my stick,” said Lekkerimäki about his favourite part of being on a power play unit. “I like the man-advantage because we are getting lots of pressure on the goalies and then hopefully scoring too.”

Lekkerimäki has seen his confidence steadily rise throughout the 2023-24 hockey year and he now takes all his good vibes into the offseason, where he is already working to prepare himself for the new challenge of playing his rookie season in North America.

Next year is certainly not going to be easy for the 19-year-old but there is a support system in place from the organization to give him the best chance to develop and grow his game.

Building Blue: Jonathan Lekkerimäki Prepares for North America in the Next Chapter of his Young Hockey Career

2023.24 Leaders

Danila Klimovich

Nikita Tolopilo