Back on trade deadline day, the Canucks reassigned Vasily Podkolzin, Noah Juulsen, Christian Wolanin and Aatu Räty to the AHL in order for them to be eligible for the AHL playoffs.
Podkolzin, Juulsen, and Wolanin have each been in the NHL since the deadline while Räty has stuck down in the AHL. Aside from sticking in the NHL since the deadline, the three names we mentioned have all been injured recently and are currently not available to play.
This isn’t great news as the Abbotsford Canucks would receive a massive boost to their team with Wolanin, Podkolzin and Juulsen joining the Canucks for their AHL playoff run.
Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet was asked about the status of the three injured players for the AHL playoffs and the answer sounded promising.
“I think they’re trending to the playoffs,” said Tocchet. “Yeah, that’s two weeks away. I don’t know exactly the day but they are trending to being able to play.”
Tocchet also spoke about his plans to watch the AHL playoffs and that he has enjoyed the atmosphere out at the Abbotsford Centre.
“I’ll probably go to a couple of games,” said Tocchet. “I love watching playoff hockey. I went down [to Abbotsford] the other day. I love the atmosphere so it’ll be fun. It’ll be fun to see some guys that who have a chance to make our team next year in a playoff-style atmosphere — pressure games.”
Playoff tickets are on sale for the AHL playoffs. The Abbotsford Canucks will host all three games in the opening round of the AHL playoffs. They have clinched a top-four spot in the Pacific Division and that means they will host the opening best-of-three series.
The AHL playoffs will see each division have a winner and then they will crossover and compete with four teams fighting for the Calder Cup.
Abbotsford closes out the season with five more home games over the next two weeks. They will play the Ontario Reign twice this weekend and then play the Calgary Wranglers three times over four nights.
They have four community and fan engagement nights to close out the season.
Community Heroes Night will be Saturday, April 8th.
Autism Acceptance Night will be Wednesday, April 12th.
Country Night will be Friday, April 14th.
Fan Appreciation Night will be Saturday, April 15th, as the Abbotsford Canucks close out the regular season and prep for April 19th.
We will have you covered with all the AHL updates and will be travelling out to the Abbotsford Centre for all of the home games.