Website domain registration obtained by The News suggests that the new American Hockey League team located in Abbotsford may end up sharing the same name as its parent National Hockey League club – the Canucks.
According to WHOisXML API data, the same domain registrar used by the Vancouver Canucks for canucks.com registered the website abbycanucks.com on May 5, 2021.
Webnames.ca, a Vancouver-based domain registrar, created the abbycanucks.com website on the afternoon of May 5 – exactly one day after it was announced that the Canucks were intending to relocate to Abbotsford.
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According to WHOisXML API data, the Vancouver Canucks have owned the domain name canucks.com since Oct. 31, 1994, and Webnames.ca is associated with the account.
A Facebook sports team page titled ‘Abby Canucks’ was also created on May 5, 2021. Twitter, Instagram and TikTok accounts were all created under the ‘Abby Canucks’ name.
The team name Canucks was on a list of 10 suggested names the club floated to season ticket holders last month.
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An NHL team and its AHL team sharing a name isn’t uncommon. NHL team names being used by an AHL team include: Bridgeport Islanders (New York), Providence Bruins (Boston), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (Pittsburgh), Belleville Senators (Ottawa), Iowa Wild (Minnesota) and the Texas Stars (Dallas).
The abbycanucks.com domain registration wasn’t the only website name registered, as a number of related websites possibly tied to the team were also registered recently.
The domain abbotsfordcanucks.com was also registered on May 5, 2021 through GoDaddy and is linked to a registrant in New Jersey.
GoDaddy also registered the domain name abbotsfordaviators.com through a user based in B.C. on May 5. A user based in British Columbia also used GoDaddy to register abbotsfordaeros.com on May 5.
The domain names for both abbotsfordmillionaires.com and fraservalleymillionaires.com were acquired by a user based in Iceland. The user registered the Abbotsford website on May 11 and the Fraser Valley version on May 5. They were both registered through namecheap.com. The user from Iceland also registered fraservalleycanucks.com.
There were no websites found registered related to potential team names Aces, Avengers, Falcons, Golden Eagles, Pilots or Sockeyes.
The Canucks announced they will be revealing the official name of the team on Friday, July 9.
Save the date! Get ready #Canucks fans, one week from today our AHL Abbotsford affiliate comes to life. 👀 pic.twitter.com/1hugZpgBP1
— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) July 2, 2021
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