The teddy bear toss, originating with the WHL Kamloops Blazers, has made its way around the world in the decades since, including with the Abbotsford Canucks.
A holiday staple for junior and minor league hockey teams, the teddy bear toss has captivated hockey fans across North America — and beyond.
The Abbotsford Canucks are no exception, having held their inaugural teddy bear toss game on December 4, 2021, against the San Jose Barracuda. The team have held the fun, fur-flinging event every year since, with stuffed toys going towards the Archway Christmas Bureau Toys for Tots program in Abbotsford, along with the West Coast Kids Cancer Foundation in 2022.
Originating in BC, the teddy bear toss first took place in 1993, when the WHL's Kamloops Blazers hosted the spectacle on December 5. Future Canuck and two-time Stanley Cup winner Brad Lukowich scored the goal that sent toys flying onto the ice at the then-named Riverside Coliseum. In the three decades since, sports fans around the world look forward to the holiday giving celebration.
The current hockey record was set by the AHL’s Hershey Bears’ toss on January 5, 2025, with 102,343 being sent onto the ice by the Boston Bruins' affiliated team. The Bears have made a spectacle of the toss, hoping to set a new record each year, and have collected over half a million stuffed toys for charity since 2001.
The AHL and junior hockey leagues aren’t the only ones getting in on the action — the toss has spread to hockey leagues as far as Australia in recent years. The Melbourne Ice of the semi-pro Australian Ice Hockey League hold their annual teddy bear toss game in July to benefit local charities, and Luleå HF brought the event to the Swedish Hockey League in December 2017. The Elite Ice Hockey League in the UK holds “Air the Bear” nights each year around the holidays, with seven teams participating in the event and donating over eleven thousand toys to children across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Teddy bear tosses have also occurred in Italian basketball, Australian soccer, and European football. Supporters of the Turkish football club Besiktas threw stuffed animals onto the pitch in late February 2023, which were donated to young survivors of the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake earlier that month. The world record for a sports stuffed animal toss is claimed by Polish football club Widzew Łódź, with 119,730 toys thrown on the pitch in September 2024.
Abbotsford’s 2025 event started strong, as the Canucks led the game until late in the third period, eventually losing to the Coachella Valley Thunderbirds 4-3 in a shootout. Canucks forward Nils Åman opened the scoring on the power play, prompting the Abbotsford faithful to throw 2,257 stuffed animals onto the ice at Rogers Forum, in benefit of the Archway Christmas Bureau.
“It was a great pass from [Jackson] Kunz there,” Åman told The Hockey News, “I was just trying to shoot it to the net, and it went in. It was fun.”
“It’s a special feeling, especially to score that goal, and all the bears are coming on and all that stuff.”
Åman joins a select few Canucks players who have scored the teddy bear toss goal, joining Will Lockwood (2021), Phil Di Giuseppe (2022), Chase Wouters (2023), and Jett Woo (2024).
“It’s a fun thing to have on your list,” Åman commented about scoring the goal that benefits the Fraser Valley community. “It’s really good, always good we can do something for someone else.”
Nils Åman and Jackson Kunz of the Abbotsford Canucks (Photo Credit: @abbycanucks on "X")It was Åman’s second goal of the season, where he also has 14 assists for 16 points through 24 games with Abbotsford. In the month of December, Åman had seven points through 10 games, including a six-game point streak.
Abbotsford may sit near the bottom of the league in the standings, though the fanbase’s passion is still present. “The fans are always great here in Abbotsford,” Åman commented on the support, “cheering us on, even with the loss or win, just a lot of love to them.”
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