Highway One Canucks: The Path From Abbotsford’s Calder Cup To

In June of 2025, the Abbotsford Canucks won their first Calder Cup in franchise history. Nine of the players on this championship roster played for the Vancouver Canucks during the 2025–26 season, with three of them skating in more than 60 games. For many, if not all of these players, the jump from the AHL to the NHL has been in the making for much longer than just one calendar year.

Linus Karlsson is one of these players. Acquired by the Canucks via trade in February 2019, the forward spent three seasons with Abbotsford before finding himself a full-time role at the NHL level this year. He finished the 2025–26 season tied for the fifth-most points on the team with 35 and the fourth-most goals with 15. On April 4 against the Utah Mammoth, Karlsson also played in his 100th career NHL game.

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While this season was undoubtedly a breakout year for Karlsson, the forward’s success extends past just the start of this season.

“I’ve been here for four years now, and finally, I took the step to play in the NHL, something I worked hard for,” Karlsson said at the end of the season. “I’m really proud of that.”

Aatu Räty first made his NHL debut with his former team, the New York Islanders, in December of 2022. The 2025–26 season was the first time that Räty did not play in a game with Abbotsford since joining the Canucks in 2022–23, with the forward putting up four goals and 10 assists in 66 games this season. While he has seen NHL time in three of his past four seasons since making his debut, heading into this season, making the full-time jump was a key goal of Räty’s.

“I think going into the year, I really wanted to make myself an NHL player, and I feel like I did accomplish that, being up all year. But I think the next step is just to become a good player.”

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Still, Räty recognizes that there are parts of his game that he still wants to work on. Last off-season, the forward missed most of Abbotsford’s Calder Cup run due to…