Nick Holden says he’s still bothered by the Chilliwack Bruins leaving town.
Holden, 26, now a defenceman with the Colorado Avalanche, was one of the first stars with the Bruins, who came into the WHL to great fanfare in 2006-07 but were gone just five seasons later, sold to owners who moved the club to Victoria.
“You have so many good memories of Chilliwack and you can’t really go back and go watch a game or go see old faces in the front office or anything like that,” Holden said prior to Colorado’s game against the Vancouver Canucks last week.
“The only person in Victoria who was in Chilliwack is Matt Auerbach, the trainer. I keep in contact with him. A couple of summers I went out there and said hello to him, but it’s not the same. I went down to the rink and everything was unfamiliar.”
Like many involved, Holden blames the Bruins’ demise on the Abbotsford Heat, the AHL affiliate of the Calgary Flames, starting up just down the highway in 2009-10.
The Flames, oddly enough, also own the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen.
Chilliwack listed attendance at 4,467 for their inaugural year. By 2008-09, that number was at 4,073. Their listed attendance for that first year going up against the Heat was 3,260. They were moving to Victoria after one more season.
The newly minted Royals drew 5,660 their first season in Victoria. They averaged 4,800 this time around.
“It would have worked if Abbotsford didn’t come into the AHL. Almost half the Bruins’ fan base was there. When they came in, and the Bruins were still a young franchise and struggling, they faced some tough problems,” said Holden.
Chilliwack’s best season in the standings was their last, when they finished 33-31-4-4. They made the playoffs four of five seasons, losing in the first round each time.
The Bruins lost to the Vancouver Giants in the playoffs their first two seasons. WHL onlookers often wondered whether they should have dealt Holden and forwards Oscar Moller and Mark Santorelli at the trade deadline that second season for young, up and comers. Club brass opted against it.
With the trio all off to play pro in the Bruins’ third season, Chilliwack had a nine-win decline, falling to 19-46-2-5, and finished out of the playoffs.
“At the trade deadline, we had all heard we were all going everywhere. We had a team meeting and they said that we were keeping the team together, because we thought we had a decent team and wanted to see what we could do,” said Holden.
“Vancouver was so strong those years. There was nothing you could do.”
Holden says he still keeps in contact with Santorelli, who is playing for HC Bolzano, an Italian team in the Austrian league. He says he hasn’t spoken in some time with Moller, a one-time Los Angeles Kings’ second rounder who has been playing in his native Sweden since 2011-12.
Holden, a native of St. Albert, Alta., signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a free agent in March, 2008. He signed with Colorado as a free agent last July.
In this, his first full season in the NHL, he averaged 18 minutes, 40 seconds per game, the fifth-highest total for Colorado. He put up 10 goals, 25 points and a plus-12 rating in 54 regular season games.
