Completely incorrect answer...The Vancouver Canucks were in a very fruitful and successful partnership with the Manitoba Moose when Abbotsford entered into the AHL in 2009. THE ONLY reason they still aren't is True North purchased Atlanta and moved them to Winnipeg and took their previously owned Moose and moved them to St. Johns as the new Jets affiliate, thus ending the agreement between them and Vancouver. Vancouver then moved to Chicago. At no time was there ever a consideration for Vancouver to go to Abbotsford because by the time their agreement with Chicago expired the city of Abbotsford had determined that they didn't want to be in the AHL hockey business...otherwise Vancouver could've moved their team there at any time during the multiple endings of their agreement with Utica and Esche. How many "extensions" has the the Utica/Vancouver partnership seen over the last few years...And Abbotsford was vacant during the entire western movement a few years ago...why did Vancouver choose to stay in Utica and not move west then? Becasuse it has never been a consideration because Abbotsford has said no time and time again So NO stockton/calgary didn't "BLOCK" anyone or anything because there is NO evidence that Vancouver ever explored going there let alone had any desire to go there.
false, axe...
Vancouver was blocked by Calgary in Abbotsford, it has nothing to do with Manitoba, because the Canucks asked for the rights to buy the Heat and were told, unequivocally, that the franchise wasn't for sale.
remember the Calgary affiliation history with that particular franchise, if it wasn't run by a local ownership, which dates back to Saint John, 8 years prior to the dissolution of the IHL in 2001, Calgary has had a lot of control over how they ran the franchise, and eventually bought it outright by the time they got to Abbotsford as the Abbotsford local ownership, just as the Saint John ownership collapsed financially despite a Championship in 2000/2001, it wasn't self sustainable to keep the franchise in Saint John..... hence why the relocations began once the franchise was reestablished; why didn't the Flames stay longer in Omaha (2 years), and gone.... then basically killed the sustainability of the Quad City market after the Mallards success, and that went less than 2, before the Abbotsford experimentation that went 5 AND done, AND then Stockton 6+ to present day...
who was the team that sold Vancouver the franchise, axe, when they wanted nothing to do with the Wolves, just like the hockey fanbases in North America seem to revolve around Don Levin and the Chicago Wolves.... St. Louis wasn't it.... so do you really think the hockey fanbase cares that much about Rosemont, IL in the midst of a global pandemic, much less fans of existing teams... nope
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