Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Put away the video. The pre-scout material, too. No more meetings.
Game 1 of the Calder Cup Finals has arrived for the Abbotsford Canucks and Charlotte Checkers, two far-flung opponents who will open their best-of-seven series tonight at Bojangles Coliseum (7 ET, AHLTV on FloHockey, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio). Both the Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks organizations are seeking their first Calder Cup title. History between these two teams is minimal. In fact, the most recent match-up of Florida-Vancouver prospects came Jan. 3, 2020, when their former affiliates, the Springfield Thunderbirds and Utica Comets, met.
But already there are some first impressions as each team has gotten a crash course in the other this week.
“I think it’s a group that’s very structured, very organized,” Checkers head coach Geordie Kinnear said of Abbotsford. “Been together for a bit. Obviously well-coached, and they play the game the right way.”
Said Canucks goaltender Artūrs Šilovs of Charlotte: “They look [like a] physical, hard-working team. I think they play a similar style as we do. I think it can be a good challenge for us.”
Recent history for each club is something that they do have in common, too. Both teams finished second in their respective divisions in the 2024-25 regular season. They’ve been through nearly two months of the playoff grind, be it on the schedule or between series after polishing off an opponent. Abbotsford has been through four playoff series already, eliminating the Tucson Roadrunners, Coachella Valley Firebirds, Colorado Eagles and Texas Stars, coming through in elimination games against Tucson and Colorado. The Checkers nearly saw their season end in the division semifinals against Providence, but they prevailed and then went on to sweep the back-to-back Calder Cup champion Hershey Bears and the regular-season champion Laval Rocket.
Powered by a late-season 13-game winning streak, Abbotsford went into the Calder Cup Playoffs hot and has barely slowed down. Charlotte has an eight-game winning streak.
“We can expect a really, really good team,” said Checkers forward Will Lockwood, a former Canuck. “They’ve been one of the hottest teams in the league in the second half of the season and coming into the playoffs. I think we can expect a team that’s playing with a lot of mojo and a lot of confidence and a team that’s going to compete and work really hard. It’s going to be very structured as well.”
Canucks captain Chase Wouters has come away impressed by what he has seen of Charlotte in his team’s pre-scout work.
“They’re battle-tested,” Wouters said. “They’re ready to go. Everyone is going to be doing everything they can to win out there. They’re a great team and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
In net, Abbotsford has Šilovs and his five shutouts. Charlotte counters with Kaapo Kähkönen, a late-season trade acquisition who solidified their status as a top Calder Cup contender. The Šilovs-Kähkönen match-up could well become the story of this series.
Strong blue lines underpin each club. Charlotte has Second All-Star Team member Trevor Carrick along with Mike Benning, Matt Kiersted and Tobias Bjornfot helping to lead the way. Abbotsford’s Jett Woo plays a hard, abrasive game. Christian Wolanin, who won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s top defenseman two years ago, has been excellent. Rookie Kirill Kudryavtsev has gone from a seventh-round pick to one of the top prospects in the Vancouver system.
Up front, Canucks sniper Linus Karlsson’s nine goals tie him for the postseason lead. Arshdeep Bains has been a critical piece of the Abbotsford offense. So has Sammy Blais, a Stanley Cup winner with St. Louis in 2019. Charlotte’s John Leonard tied for second in the AHL with 36 regular-season goals. Rasmus Asplund added 20 goals in the regular season. Justin Sourdif can dominate play. NHL veteran Jesse Puljujärvi, another late-season newcomer in Charlotte, has been strong for the Checkers this postseason. Responsible, dangerous two-way forwards are up and down each team’s roster, and each club has ample depth options as well.
Each club possesses a shut-down penalty kill. Abbotsford had killed off 39 of 40 opposing power-play chances before Texas finally started to figure out a way to counter that success. The Checkers led the AHL with 16 regular-season shorthanded goals and have carried that straight into the Calder Cup Playoffs, burning opponents six more times. The Canucks are clicking at an even 22 percent on the power play, though, and will test that Charlotte penalty kill.
Above all, each club has cemented an identity. That is no small task in the AHL with turnover and inexperience often undoing the work and foundation that had been put in place earlier.
These are hard, puck-hungry, physical teams defined by their ability to master one of the most difficult tasks in hockey: consistency. Each night they can implement their game quickly, define that night’s play, and maintain those elements. There is little panic in their games. Abbotsford has NHL veteran forward Manny Malhotra – a Calder Cup winner with Hartford 25 years ago – in his first season behind an AHL bench. Kinnear has been in the AHL coaching business since 2001, won a Calder Cup as a player in 1995 with the Albany River Rats, and has led Florida prospects since 2016. Neither head coach will bow to the pressure of the Finals.
Both teams have mastered the emotional highs and lows that come with a playoff journey that can extend two months, take them across the AHL, and put them through mental tests one night after the next.
“I think that’s the exact feeling in the room, the highs and lows,” Wolanin said. “You’ve got to manage them. You’ve got to enjoy them. You’ve got to buy into them. There are times when you feel like you might never lose again. And then when they make things tight, you feel like you might never win again. It’s just human nature to fall into the trap of the emotions, but that’s also what makes this so special.
“Manny’s done a great job of keeping us in that mindset, and we’ve done a great job within the room of really enjoying this process, each little moment, the extended month-and-a-half together, the long road trips, the hotels, the quick turnaround. It’s pretty hard not to become closer as a group going through all this together.”
Whether it’s Abbotsford or Charlotte that ultimately lifts the Calder Cup, Šilovs outlined a time-tested path for any team to have championship success.
“Just have to out-work them, out-will them, and be more desperate.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
