Sedin twins say Canucks aim to add ice as Britannia practice facility plan faces community pushback

The Story

Henrik Sedin said Vancouver’s number of ice rinks, relative to its population, is a problem for communities that need access to ice time, as the Canucks work on a practice facility plan.

Speaking on the Halford & Brough show, Henrik Sedin compared his hometown experience in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden—about a population of 35,000—with Vancouver, which he described as having about 775,000 people. He said Örnsköldsvik has the same number of ice rinks as Vancouver, adding that in his upbringing town of roughly 35,000 people, there were “six or seven ice rinks,” which made it easier “to find ice times whenever you needed.”

Henrik Sedin said increasing access to ice is a “big goal” for the Sedins and for the organization, and he said they are “working hard to find a solution,” while noting that they will “see what happens as we go forward.”

The possibility of shifting away from Britannia was raised by CHEK TV’s Rick Dhaliwal, who said Canucks general manager Ryan Johnson sounded a cautious note about the location at a season ticket holder event. Dhaliwal reported that Johnson said Britannia “may not be a done deal,” and that the organization is keeping “their options open” to explore adding sheets of ice.

Dhaliwal’s account tied the Britannia discussion to community concerns that the plan’s complexity and the issue of adding an additional sheet of ice did not align with needs of the people and groups using the facility.

The Canucks previously announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the City of Vancouver to build a practice facility at Britannia Ice Rink, but the source materials say pushback grew after it became clear the plan would not include adding another sheet of ice. The pushback was described as coming from the community and from minor hockey teams that use the rink.

Daniel Sedin said the organization has heard complaints and wants to make a facility choice that would add rinks rather than reduce access for community users. He said, “We would love to give something back to the community and add rinks,” ahead of the Canucks’ training camp.

Dhaliwal also suggested the Canucks could look beyond Britannia, saying the MOU “includes exploring other sites.” He added that the organization could discuss different sites owned by the city, not just Britannia, and that “a new location is possible.”

The source materials also state that, over the 20 years the Aquilini family has owned the Canucks, developers in the organization’s ownership period have not built a single new sheet of ice in Vancouver. It further notes that once construction on the Calgary Flames’ new arena is complete, the Canucks would be the only NHL team without a practice facility.