CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theahl.com) … For the first time in franchise history, the Abbotsford Canucks are Calder Cup champions.
The Canucks wrapped up their first American Hockey League championship tonight with a 3-2 victory over the Charlotte Checkers to win the 2025 Calder Cup Finals series four games to two. Linus Karlsson’s league-leading 14th goal of the postseason was the difference as the Canucks rallied from an early two-goal deficit to win Game 6.
Goaltender Artūrs Šilovs won the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs. Šilovs, a sixth-round choice by Vancouver in the 2019 NHL Draft, went 16-8 with a 2.01 goals-against average, a .931 save percentage and five shutouts in 24 playoff appearances, including 28 saves in Game 6 tonight. The 24-year-old Šilovs tied an AHL record for wins in a single postseason.
Sammy Blais and Danila Klimovich also scored for the Canucks in Game 6 after Charlotte had grabbed a 2-0 lead on first-period goals from John Leonard and Jack Devine.
The Canucks’ Calder Cup championship is the first ever by a Vancouver affiliate. Under rookie head coach Manny Malhotra, who also won a Calder Cup as a player with the Hartford Wolf Pack in 2000, Abbotsford defeated the Tucson Roadrunners (2-1), the Coachella Valley Firebirds (3-1), the Colorado Eagles (3-2) and the Texas Stars (4-2) before eliminating Charlotte to become just the second team in AHL history to win five series in one playoff year. The Canucks are also the first Calder Cup champion to come out of the Pacific Division since it was formed in 2015.
Abbotsford’s victory brings an end to the AHL’s 89th season. In operation since 1936, the AHL continues to serve as the top development league for all 32 National Hockey League teams. Nearly 90 percent of today’s NHL players are American Hockey League graduates, and more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame spent time in the AHL in their careers.
NOTES: Abbotsford became the first Vancouver Canucks affiliate ever to win the Calder Cup, and the first champion from Canada since the Toronto Marlies won the title in 2018… Sammy Blais, who won the Stanley Cup with St. Louis in 2019, became the 133rd player ever to win championships in both the NHL and the AHL… Manny Malhotra is the first rookie head coach to win the Calder Cup since Grand Rapids’ Jeff Blashill in 2013, and the 19th person overall to win AHL titles as both a player and a head coach… The Canucks were 1-for-2 on the power play in Game 6 to finish 18-for-70 (25.6 percent) for the postseason.
(Abbotsford wins series, 4-2)
Game 1 – Fri., June 13 – Abbotsford 4, CHARLOTTE 3 (2OT)
Game 2 – Sun., June 15 – CHARLOTTE 3, Abbotsford 2 (OT)
Game 3 – Tue., June 17 – ABBOTSFORD 6, Charlotte 1
Game 4 – Thu., June 19 – ABBOTSFORD 3, Charlotte 2
Game 5 – Sat., June 21 – Charlotte 4, ABBOTSFORD 3 (OT)
Game 6 – Mon., June 23 – Abbotsford 3, CHARLOTTE 2
