The Florida Panthers just won their second Stanley Cup championship Tuesday night, defeating the Edmonton Oilers for the second consecutive year.
Entering the NHL as an expansion team in 1993, the Panthers went to the Stanley Cup Final in their third season and then spent the better part of nearly three decades wandering at the bottom of the NHL before building the burgeoning dynasty that they have today.
Fifty-five years into their existence, the Vancouver Canucks have come painfully close to hockey’s ultimate achievement. In 1982, they ran into the New York Islanders dynasty. Twelve years later in 1994, they staged one of the most memorable, story-laden series in Stanley Cup history, going toe-to-toe with the New York Rangers for seven games. In 2011, they again fought for seven games before falling to the Boston Bruins.
Neither NHL organization, however, owns a Calder Cup title. That will change within the next week whenever the Abbotsford Canucks and Charlotte Checkers complete this fight for the Calder Cup. Game 4 is tonight at Abbotsford Centre. Abbotsford holds a 2-1 series lead after throttling the visiting Checkers, 6-1, in Game 3 this past Tuesday night.
2025 Charlotte Checkers vs Abbotsford Canucks
Vancouver prospects have come the closest to reaching the top of the AHL. Their previous AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets, went to the 2015 Calder Cup Finals. That effort fell short. So did their Manitoba Moose in 2009. And in 1988, as part of a dual affiliation sharing the Fredericton Express with the Quebec Nordiques, they ran into the Hershey Bears, the only team to go 12-0 in Calder Cup Playoff history.
Florida prospects? They had never even reached an AHL conference final before this year.
Difficult, winding affiliation histories for Florida, Vancouver
Both NHL organizations have taken long, winding roads through multiple leagues and locales for their respective top affiliates before each found in 2021 what looks to be a long-term fit.
Go back to 1970 when Vancouver entered the NHL. They forged an AHL affiliation with the Rochester Americans. That partnership came complete with a highly unpopular new logo for the Amerks as well as a lot of losses, and the two sides split after just two seasons. They found something of a fit with Fredericton in the 1980s before moving to the former International Hockey League with the Milwaukee Admirals. They went back to the AHL in 1992, establishing the Hamilton Canucks. The Hamilton move only lasted two seasons before they became the Syracuse Crunch. That lasted until 2000 and a one-year switch to Kansas City of the IHL before the IHL folded altogether. Vancouver then came back to the AHL, this time with the Manitoba Moose. That set-up largely succeeded, at least until the Moose left town with the return of the NHL to Winnipeg in 2011.
On short notice, the Canucks teamed up with Chicago Wolves and then found another good fit with Utica in 2013.
Still, whether it was Fredericton, Ontario, somewhere in New York State, Chicago, or elsewhere, geography always proved to be a challenge for Vancouver. Keeping a close eye on prospects, getting in day-to-day work with prospects, and shuffling recalls to and from Vancouver brought plenty of obstacles from as far as three time zones away.
Florida set up an affiliation in the IHL in 1993 with the Cincinnati Cyclones that last all of two seasons. Following the growing list of teams in the mid-1990s moving to the more developmentally oriented AHL, they went to Greensboro, N.C. as the Carolina Monarchs. That set-up could have worked, but the Carolina Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 displaced the Monarchs and forced them into a short-lived dual affiliation alongside the Hurricanes with the Beast of New Haven. When that arrangement fell apart, the Panthers went to Louisville, Ky. That, too, failed, sending an ever-changing Florida front office on a winding pursuit of a long-term home for their prospects.
From there, among other stops, it was off to the San Antonio Rampage and Rochester; they split the Amerks for a season with the Buffalo Sabres before taking over in full for five seasons. They had the unenviable task of replacing the popular and geographically convenient Sabres affiliation in Western New York. Then it was back to San Antonio in 2011 for four more seasons before a one-year stop with the Portland Pirates for 2015-16. The Pirates moved to Springfield, Mass., in 2016, setting up as the Thunderbirds and housed Florida prospects for four more seasons.
Of course, it did not particularly help that the Panthers rarely had much to offer in terms of top prospects or high-end veterans. The Monarchs missed in both of their seasons. New Haven went as far as a first-round exit in one season, missing the following year, as did Louisville. San Antonio had a quick playoff exit followed by two misses. The Buffalo-Florida affiliation in Rochester missed in 2005-06. On their own in Rochester, the Panthers missed three of five seasons and did not win a playoff round.
In fact, it was not until 2012 that a full Florida affiliate won a Calder Cup Playoff round. San Antonio missed the next two seasons. First-round exits followed in 2015 with the Rampage and 2016 with Springfield. The Thunderbirds never qualified for the postseason under the Florida banner.
Change comes in 2021
It was 2021 that changed everything for both Florida and Vancouver.
During the truncated 2020-21 AHL season, the Panthers had opted to place prospects in Syracuse alongside Tampa Bay Lightning hopefuls. Vancouver stuck with Utica, a considerable difficulty at a time with cross-border restrictions. To avoid complications, the Canucks had defenseman Guillaume Brisebois stationed with the Laval Rocket while goaltender Artūrs Šilovs spent time with Manitoba, by then back in the AHL as an affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets.
Meanwhile, an empty arena sat an hour to the east of Vancouver in Abbotsford. The building had housed an AHL affiliate for the Calgary Flames between 2009-14, but selling fans in the city on the prospects from a top rival proved to be too difficult to overcome.
So Vancouver brought their affiliation west to Abbotsford in May 2021, the first time that the organization has ever had its AHL affiliate within the province of British Columbia.
While Abbotsford must fly to all road destinations, the logistics still remain convenient. Vancouver offers direct flights to Calgary, Winnipeg, California, and to – or at least near – other AHL cities. Vancouver management and development staff, including Daniel and Henrik Sedin, can make the easy trip to Abbotsford to work with and watch prospects. Marketing-wise, the Vancouver-Abbotsford link is an easy one.
And the Panthers? They have gotten it right with their AHL affiliate as well. After splitting with Springfield during the heart of the pandemic, they found an ideal set-up with the Checkers, who had just undergone their own break-up with the Hurricanes.
So Florida and Charlotte combined forces. Charlotte is a major air hub, and flights go to and from South Florida throughout the day. The Checkers have long had a top-flight front office, which means that Florida management can know that its prospects are in a strong day-to-day set-up.
The Panthers also work with the Checkers to put together a competitive, experienced roster in Charlotte. At the moment, Florida’s base of AHL prospects has thinned out, the consequence of being a top Stanley Cup contender in recent years. Last summer brought the signings of Second AHL All-Star Team member Trevor Carrick, 36-goal scorer John Leonard, and useful forward Kyle Criscuolo among others for Charlotte. To help the Checkers to have an even stronger chance to pursue a title, the Panthers went out at the NHL trade deadline and acquired goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen, someone with 140 NHL games to his name.
Along with Florida and Vancouver, only the Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks, Seattle Kraken, Vegas Golden Knights, and Utah Mammoth organizations have yet to win a Calder Cup. All but Anaheim, San Jose, and the Mammoth, who just completed their first NHL season, have at least reached the Calder Cup Finals.
For Florida or Vancouver, however, that soon will change.
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