Vancouver Canucks on the hunt for new practice rink locale (2024)

It’s back to the practice whiteboard for the Vancouver Canucks, as their plans to operate a practice facility just a hop, skip and a jump across Pacific Boulevard from Rogers Arena have fallen through.

Article content

The NHL team is no longer part of the project to redevelop the Plaza of Nations, a plan that would have seen them operate an NHL-sized rink that would have served as both a practice facility for the Canucks and as a facility for the public. The plan would have also seen the Canucks occupy a fair amount of space for offices and sport science facilities.

Daisen Gee-Wing, senior vice-president at Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp., the company that owns and is redeveloping the Plaza of Nations lands, confirmed that the Canucks pulled out of the project nearly 18 months ago, in the first months of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic brought so much of life to a halt.

Article content

NEXT GAME

Saturday

Vancouver Canucks vs. Edmonton Oilers

Article content

Article content

7 p.m., Rogers Place. TV: CBC, Sportsnet Pacific. Radio: Sportsnet 650 AM

This would have been right around the time that the proposal was set to receive preliminary approval from the City of Vancouver.

“They are no longer part of the ice rink,” Gee-Wing said. “For whatever reason, they can explain to you why they’ve pulled out.”

But the redevelopment plan — which received tentative approvals for the first phase last year — still includes a plan for an ice rink, Gee-Wing said. And he’s found a new operator for the proposed facility, he added.

“It’s an amenity for us, regardless for whether the Canucks go there or not, the plan is to build it,” Gee-Wing said. “They’ve decided not to proceed and I have no issue with that. … I would have loved to see them there.”

Article content

A community centre and daycare are also proposed.

Gee-Wing said it was Canadian Metropolitan Properties Corp. who had to convince the city to let them build the ice rink originally.

There is only one ice sheet currently on the downtown peninsula, a small rink at the West End Community Centre.

“You can’t just build the towers. We put the ice rink and the community centre and the daycare in there,” Gee-Wing said. “Might as well do it to be part of the community.”

The Canucks declined to comment.

If the Canucks plan to build their own facility it means they’re back to square one. There aren’t many options near Rogers Arena to build another ice rink, which is why the Plaza of Nations redevelopment seemed like such a good fit.

Article content

Most teams in the NHL now have a permanent facility separate from the main arena, sometimes in the same complex — as is the case in Edmonton and New Jersey — but usually in a locale that’s far removed from the game arena.

And that’s the catch with building a separate facility, most players would likely prefer not to have to travel to a rink that’s far from where they live, assuming they’ve set up their home near the game arena.

In Vancouver, most players live in Yaletown or Vancouver’s west side, with a handful living on the North Shore.

The team has an agreement to use the Scotia Barn in Burnaby, also known as Burnaby 8 Rinks, when needed. The arrangement also applies to visiting NHL teams.

But they still mostly practice at Rogers Arena. For most of the past decade, when they did need a second facility, they used the Father Bauer Arena at the University of B.C.’s Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre before returning to Burnaby in 2019, resuming a partnership that had seen 8 Rinks as the team’s primary practice facility from 1995 to 2010.

Article content

In those years, the Canucks had a permanent presence at 8 Rinks, with offices, a dressing room and work spaces for the therapists and equipment staff, whereas their current arrangement has them setting up as temporary tenants on the days they actually use the facility.

Teams that have permanent facilities store separate sets of team equipment at the practice facility with only the players’ skates needing to be shuttled between the two locales.

pjohnston@postmedia.com

twitter.com/risingaction

CLICK HERE to report a typo.

Is there more to this story? We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about. Email vantips@postmedia.com.

Article content