Vancouver Canucks announce ECHL affiliation with the Kalamazoo Wings

Maybe third time’s the charm for the Vancouver Canucks.

The Vancouver Canucks have entered into a one-year ECHL affiliation with the Kalamazoo Wings. This news comes after the Canucks’ 2016-17 ECHL affiliate Alaska Aces had to fold due to financial struggles.

This affiliation marks the third time in Kalamazoo’s history that the Canucks and K-Wings have worked together, after stints in 1984-87 and in 2011-15 previously.

The addition of the K-Wings to the Canucks family means that the AHL’s Utica Comets will have a lower-tier league available to demote players.

Last season, three Vancouver Canucks prospects played in the ECHL, including netminder Michael Garteig and forwards Mackenze Stewart and Yan-Pavel Laplante. Although players from the ECHL are rarely able to make the NHL, the Canucks have seen that players like Alex Burrows can work their way up to the NHL and be impact players.

That is the hope the Canucks have for defenseman Evan McEneny who earned a call-up to Vancouver last year after playing 36 games in the ECHL back in the 2015-16 season. McEneny having earned Travis Green‘s trust in Utica this past season, look for him to make a push for a spot in the NHL come training camp.

Advantage: Location

A note of interest is that the Kalamazoo Wings play in Michigan, which is an advantage in many ways for the Canucks and the Comets.

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The Kalamazoo Wings’ home arena is just under 1000 km away from Utica, which makes the K-Wings a much more accessible affiliate for the Comets than the Alaska Aces were at about 7000 km. Though the new ECHL will be further away from Vancouver than it was before, it will now be much closer to Utica.

The second advantage is that the location allows the Canucks to follow one of their up-and-coming prospects much more. Last year’s third-round selection forward William Lockwood plays for the University of Michigan, which is located less than two hours away by drive from Kalamazoo.

The Canucks are turning to skill and speed with their prospects and Lockwood, the 19-year-old Michigan native, is one of the fastest skaters in the Canucks prospects pipeline.

They will want to watch him closely, something that the Canucks’ staff at Kalamazoo could do on a regular basis in hopes of developing Lockwood into the second coming Jannik Hansen.

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Game one of preseason for the Vancouver Canucks goes September 16th in Los Angeles, against the Pacific Division rival L. A. Kings. The regular season opener takes place at home on October 7th, against Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers.