At 11:59 PM on Monday night, Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced that the club had sent forward Nils Höglander down to the Abbotsford Canucks.

A minute later, Höglander turned 22 years old.

The demotion comes after Hoglander was a healthy scratch for the Canucks’ 5-1 loss at home to the St. Louis Blues.

From a personal level, Höglander’s season has been full of inconsistencies. He’s played on just about every line without any sort of regularity, he’s been a healthy scratch numerous times, and when he has gotten into the lineup, he hasn’t been spectacular.

Through 25 games on the year, Höglander has three goals and six assists.

The demotion to Abbotsford is probably what’s best for his development at this point, as he joins Vasily Podkolzin and Jack Rathbone in the AHL for the purpose of playing a ton of minutes and getting reps in playing in key roles.

The Abbotsford Canucks face off against the San Jose Barracuda tonight and tomorrow night before they get to enjoy their Christmas break.

We’ll have full coverage of both of those games, thanks to Cody Severtson’s Farmies report.

The Canucks selected Höglander with the 40th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. He has never been sent down to play games in the AHL before. Through 141 career NHL games with the Canucks, Höglander has registered 26 goals and 28 assists.