Arshdeep Bains savouring journey to Calder Cup win
By DANNY RODE – It’s been an interesting three years since Arshdeep Bains signed a professional contract with the Vancouver Canucks.
Bains signed in 2022 while putting together an outstanding overage season with the Red Deer Rebels.
Bains and teammate Ben King battled for the Western Hockey League scoring race during most of the season, with Bains taking top spot with 112 points on 43 goals and a league-leading 69 assists. King placed second with 105 points, including a league-best 52 goals.
An interesting aspect of the scoring race was that Logan Stankoven, now with the Carolina Hurricanes, placed third and Chicago Blackhawks Connor Bedard fourth.
Bains and King played on the same line with the Rebels and remain close friends to this day.
“We keep in touch, in fact, I’m driving down to Kelowna this weekend to see him,” said Bains in a telephone interview from his hometown of Surrey.
King, who played last season with the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League, signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs system and with be with the Toronto Marlies.
“I think he’ll do good there,” said Bains, who just signed a new two-year contract with the Canucks.
The first year is a two-way contact with the second being one-way.
“It’s nice,” he said. “When I signed the three-year contract out of Red Deer, I wasn’t sure how that would look. But I learned a lot in those three years and now I have the opportunity to come back for two more years and see what I can do and keep building on it. I’m lucky.”
Bains is more than lucky. His offensive talent showed through during his three years — mainly with the AHL Abbotsford Canucks — and this year it peaked with an outstanding playoff performance.
Bains helped Abbotsford win the Calder Cup, finishing with 24 points on seven goals and 17 assists in 24 games. He was also a plus-eight.
FloHockey TV screenshot
“You see how hard guys play, how competitive it is, every night in the playoffs,” he said. “It was nice to help them.
The 24-year-old continued, adding that the team got on a roll at the right time and carried it through the playoffs.
“In January, we weren’t in a great spot, just looking to make the playoffs. But we peaked at the right time. We won 13 games in a row at one point and carried that into the playoffs and built on that momentum in every round.”
While Bains has spent the majority of his time at the pro level with Abbotsford, he’s twice been called up to play with the big team.
He played eight games with Vancouver in the 2023-24 season and 13 last year.
“Signing as an overage out of Red Deer, I spent the whole year in the American League,” he said. “The second year I started off really well and got the opportunity to play (with Vancouver). This year I got a chance to play more games.
‘It was a great learning experience to see how fast and how competitive it is every game. I learned what it takes to play there and hopefully it gives me a chance to be a regular one day.”
The highlight of Bains’ second stint with Vancouver came Nov. 26 when he tallied his first NHL goal in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“It felt great,” said the six-foot, 185-pound left winger. “It’s not easy to score at most levels and to achieve that at this level felt like a weight was taken off my shoulders.”
While Bains is three years into his pro career, he still fondly looks back at his time in Red Deer.
“That last year we had a really good team,” he said. “We lost in the second round of the playoffs but still we had a lot of good players. Overall, it was a good learning curve for me there. I learned how to play in the playoffs which helped build for the future and helped in the run we had this year.
“It was great with Brent (Sutter) and all the people there.
“My first couple of years, I wasn’t producing or playing the way I knew I could, but I kept learning and learning. I learned so much there.”
Despite what he learned in the WHL there’s still more to learn at the next level.
“I think just making sure when you’re not at your best, there’s still a standard … a high level, and you have to learn what the peaks are. You learn the small details as a forward and what’s expected in the defensive zone. Things to keep you in the lineup every night and build off that.”
One bright spot for Bains signing with the Canucks was that he grew up in Surrey. But there was also some pressure.
“It was both awesome to have your family and friends there, but also some pressure in that, having them all there, you were always trying to play well.
“But over time, I learned to be grateful to have my family and friends around and to just go do my job.”
Bains won’t be doing much this summer.
“Just stay around Surrey and prepare for next season.”
This story previously appeared in the Red Deer Advocate
