Gone are the days when the Abbotsford Canucks were stocked to the brim with nothing but seasoned AHL journeymen, leaving little room for excitement or development within the Vancouver Canucks’ farm system. Instead, a youth movement has slowly begun to take shape as the prospect pool grows deeper.

Despite a few added veterans to remain competitive and provide leadership, the average age of the Abbotsford Canucks has dropped for a third consecutive year:

Last season, then-22-year-old Cole McWard was the youngest player on an otherwise experienced defence corps. Fast-forward to this year and McWard suddenly seems like a grizzled veteran as Abbotsford welcomes 20-year-old defenders Elias Pettersson and Kirill Kudryavtsev into the fold.

It’s not just the blueline getting younger, either. The forward group also features new and exciting 20/21-year-old prospects such as Jonathan Lekkerimäki (20) and Ty Mueller (21) to join established youngsters like Danila Klimovich (21) and Aatu Räty (22).

Slowly but surely, the Canucks’ prospect pool is overtaking roster spots, with an organizational high of five players under the age of 22 contributing on a full-time basis this season.

Of course, balancing the infusion of youth while maintaining a winning environment is no easy task. The AHL is still a development league, but the pressure to win can weigh heavy on a coaching staff, especially when a losing streak rears its head.

This season, former Vancouver Canuck and NHL veteran Manny Malhotra has taken over the bench in Abbotsford and with his experience comes a willingness to embrace the challenge of guiding young talent while keeping a focus on building the right habits. For the first time in, well, forever, the organization appears to be galvanized with a clear focus in mind.

In a recent interview with Brandon Astle, Abbotsford’s play-by-play voice, Malhotra was asked about the balance between player development and maintaining a winning culture.

“The goal of the American Hockey League is to produce players and move them on and graduate them to the NHL level,” Malhotra said. “Skill development is important; becoming a pro and learning what it’s like to go through that grind of a schedule is one element of it. But there’s definitely the importance of being in a winning environment and learning winning habits and traits. You know, those types of things are learned behaviours. It’s not all of a sudden you can just know how to win. You have to go through struggles. You have to go through tough situations, and in doing so, if you do it in a winning environment, you get that sense of what it really takes when the game is on the line.”

Six games into the 2024-25 season, Malhotra is walking that line and has shown no hesitation in giving the youngsters significant roles. The current iteration of the team’s top-six forward units includes four U23 skaters, all of whom are playing in crucial moments of the game.

After missing the first four games of the season, Lekkerimäki has immediately slotted into the top line and powerplay unit, logging around 20 minutes of ice time.

In a post-game interview, Malhotra expressed his first impressions of his newest offensive threat.

“His intelligence with the puck stands out for sure, and his poise with it,” Manny said. “He’s put himself in a lot of situations where he has to get through some tight spaces and manipulate some D, and he does a good job of not panicking and getting himself out of trouble and on the flip side of that, you like to see you know that he does have the confidence to let the puck go and not default to his linemates.”

As for Ty Mueller, who began his rookie year on the third line, he has quickly established himself with a promotion to the second line and hovers around the 17 minutes/night mark. Despite his inexperience, he’s also eating time on both special teams’ units, largely due to his responsible two-way hockey and bringing an important 54% success rate in the face-off circle out the gate.

“For a young guy, he understands who he is as a forward,” Manny described. “He uses that size and his speed to his advantage, and he now understands how to protect pucks better and put himself into positions where he can use his shot. He’s trending in the right direction for us.”

While exciting for the fans in the building, carrying a top-six chock-full of young skaters comes with flaws, and with little experience comes mistakes. Malhotra understands that those mistakes are all a part of the process and an important piece of the pie toward blossoming into their potential.

“Well, that’s [mistakes] always a part of development; young guys are going to make mistakes with the puck. They’re going to make poor decisions at times. Number one is limiting those bad plays or mistakes, but more importantly, learning from them,” Malhotra explained.

“We want those guys to experience the game and just play to their capabilities, but at the same time, talk about having pro habits — making the right decision at the right time, and understanding that your opportunity to use your skill and to use your weapons will come once you’ve done all those little things, making strong exit plays out of the D zone, getting through the neutral zone clean, making right decisions at the blue line, and once you’re in the offensive zone, creating those opportunities and making the most of them. But it definitely is a process for young guys coming into the league to learn those pro traits.”

Elias Pettersson (D-Petey) has had a slight edge among the two due to his time with Abbotsford at the tail end of the 2023-24 season, which helped him acclimate and soak in the AHL environment. However, since the start of this season, his responsibilities have only grown. Pettersson is now averaging around 18 minutes per game, has settled into a reliable second-pairing role and is taking on key penalty-killing duties. Known for his physicality and sound defensive play, Pettersson has quickly developed a reputation as a shutdown defender, unafraid to be a physical force.

Meanwhile, Kudryavtsev has emerged as a steady presence after starting the year on the six-man fringes. Averaging between 12 and 17 minutes per game, he’s displayed an incredible poise for a young defender and an ability to walk the line with a swagger, unlike most youthful defenders fresh out of junior hockey.

“Well, you can see as the games go on, as the weeks go on, you can see their level of confidence improve, obviously. Coming into your first pro experience at 20 years old, you’re playing against guys that have had 2, 3, 4 years under their belt — some guys more,” Malhotra described the two young defenders debuts. “To see them navigate the game and understand it, and to become more confident in such a short period, is very promising to me. It’s been fun to see them develop over the last few weeks. But there is definitely more for those guys in their path to the next level.”

The Canucks’ youth movement is more than a hopeful pipe dream — it’s a real shift being put into action. Lekkerimäki, Mueller, Pettersson, and Kudryavtsev are all key examples of logging key minutes, shouldering top-six roles, and contributing to the team’s early success.

Mistakes will happen, and lessons will be learned, but that’s all part of the journey. For the first time in a long time, Abbotsford is providing fans with exciting, youthful talent to look forward to watching. With the prospect shelves slowly filling, fans should enjoy a healthy turnaround year-to-year as long as this management emphasizes development.