The new American Hockey League franchise in Abbotsford has finally received its name.
The Abbotsford Canucks will officially play out of the Abbotsford Centre this fall.
The logo is the Johnny Canuck character and it appears the primary colour is green.
The Vancouver Canucks made the announcement on social media on Wednesday (July 14) after delaying the originally scheduled reveal date of July 9.
The Canucks polled season ticket holders last month and asked them to rank their top three choices out of a list of 10 options.
RELATED: Vancouver Canucks poll season tickets holders on Abbotsford AHL team name
The new team will play at least five seasons at the Abbotsford Centre, which previously hosted the Abbotsford Heat for five seasons. That club departed in 2014.
The official agreement between the city of Abbotsford and Canucks Sports and Entertainment (CSE) was finalized on June 29.
As part of the agreement, the City of Abbotsford pays $750,000 a year to Aquilini Investment Group (who own CSE) for managing and operating responsibility for the Abbotsford Centre as a multi-purpose entertainment and sports facility. Aquilini Investment Group will manage staffing, event bookings, ticketing, and food and beverage management.
The contract also includes revenue sharing in which the city shares in the profits if there are an average of 5,000 tickets sold per regular-season game.
The effective date of the awarded contract is Jan. 1, 2022.
RELATED: City of Abbotsford, Canucks finalize partnership agreement
The team will play 68 games this season and has been slotted in the AHL’s Pacific Division.
All teams in the league will then play 72 games in 2022-23.
The full regular-season schedule and postseason format for 2021-22 will be announced later this summer. The season is expected to begin on Oct. 15.
The News reported earlier this month that it appeared the team name would be Canucks after website domain research and trademark searching.
There are six other AHL farm teams that share the name of their parent team: the Bridgeport Islanders, the Providence Bruins, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Belleville Senators, Iowa Wild and the Texas Stars.
RELATED: The Abbotsford Canucks? New AHL team may share parent team’s name
