Vancouver Canucks loses its farm team, Manitoba Moose, but still anticipate a NHL Team in Winnipeg
The Vancouver Canucks will be losing its farm team, Manitoba Moose, which was part of the American Hockey League (AHL), but is still excited about Winnipeg city getting its own National Hockey League (NHL) team after it was announced on Tuesday morning that
the Atlanta Thrashers will officially be relocating to the province of Manitoba in Canada.
Since 2001, Canucks has been taking players from Moose which was its affiliate minor league team, including players like Ryan Kesler, Corey Schneider, Kevin Bieksa, Alex Burrows and Jannik Hansen.
There were also a few other players that were called in from time to time when needed to replace injured players until they were back on ice.
Vancouver’s coach, Alain Vigneault, had also spent the 2005-2006 season as Manitoba’s coach and has memories of his own from behind the benches there.
"When I played there, six, seven years ago, they had passionate fans for the game. We used to have really good crowds there. I'm sure the fans are going to support the new NHL team. Obviously, the organization there is very strong for an NHL team”, Alex
Burrows said while talking about his previous experience, playing for Moose.
Mark Chipman and David Thomson are the owners of the whole transition of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg and Moose.
They have plans on relocating the AHL team to another city but have not made a final decision yet and intend to keep it as it is not in Winnipeg.
Canucks’ General Manager, Mike Gillis, is least concerned about the decision as he thinks it is the best thing to happen, not only for the province, but the Canadian market in general.
Affiliating another farm team even if he may have to take ownership is the last thing on his mind since there are a lot of options and opportunities available.
Talks about Thrashers being relocated were always in the pipeline and gained momentum during the 2010-2011 season.
It was only a matter of time before the official announcement was to be made.
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