Defenseman Sawyer Mynio Making Strong Early Impact for Abbotsford Canucks

Sawyer Mynio has become a fixture on the Abbotsford Canucks blue line, logging power-play minutes and 20-year-old production that has him among the highest-scoring rookie defensemen in the league. The 6-foot-1, 172-pound left-shot from Kamloops has recorded two goals and seven assists for nine points in 18 games, a pace that put him second among rookie defensemen in scoring in the stat line reported by league coverage.

Abbotsford’s coaching staff has handed Mynio primary power-play responsibilities early in his rookie AHL season, and he credits assistant coach Harry Mahesh for that immediate success. The Canucks organization and coaching room identified the 89th overall pick from the 2023 NHL Entry Draft as ready to take on special-teams work after seeing him absorb coaching and add strength to his frame.

Mynio’s path to a full-time AHL role has been incremental. Vancouver signed him to a three-year entry-level contract on September 24, 2023, and he spent the following seasons developing in junior hockey with the Seattle Thunderbirds (three and a half seasons) and half a season with the Calgary Hitmen. Mynio also skated as a black ace with Abbotsford in each of the previous two playoff runs, experiences he says accelerated his readiness for pro minutes.

Those playoff runs also produced a memorable moment in the locker room culture: Mynio was the last player to touch the Calder Cup before handing it to Abbotsford head coach Manny Malhotra, a symbolic handoff that underlines how quickly he has been absorbed into the team environment after joining the roster full time. The Calder Cup exposure offered Mynio a “great head start” for the season, he said, pointing to daily routines he observed during the playoff pushes.

Off the ice, Mynio has settled into life in British Columbia in his girlfriend Liv’s hometown, trading billet-family living for his own place and two kittens named Marvin and Teddy. The personal touch surfaced in his on-ice remarks: “I’ve seen some stuff about Jason Robertson saying every goal he scores is for his cats. Obviously, he scores a lot more than me, but yeah, I’d say my three this season are for Marvin and Teddy.” That comment appears alongside the league stat line; the quoted tally of three goals differs from the two-goal total reported in the 18-game stat line, a discrepancy between contemporary accounts that should be reconciled with official Abbotsford or AHL box scores.

Mynio’s combination of playoff seasoning, a three-year entry-level deal signed in 2023, and trust from Mahesh and the Abbotsford staff frames him as a developing piece of Vancouver’s prospect pipeline. With head coach Manny Malhotra’s group leaning on him for power-play deployment and his name climbing rookie scoring lists, Mynio’s early AHL season reads as the continuation of a multi-year push from junior prospect to pro contributor.