Barring injury, there just isn’t much need for a Braeden Cootes audition with the Canucks this year

If Braeden Cootes keeps this up, he’s going to earn a chiropractic license, the way he’s turning heads at Vancouver Canucks Camp 2025.

Plenty of players have been putting in impressive preseason performances thus far, but none have made as large of an impression as Cootes, the 18-year-old drafted at 15th overall in this most recent draft.

It’s been interesting to watch the shift in discussion from the near-certainty that the Canucks’ first this year would be traded away for immediate centre help, to the consideration that maybe using the pick was the wiser long-term move, to the present-day notion of Cootes perhaps being that immediate centre help himself.

It’s been quite a rollercoaster, and it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement. But while his performance has certainly earned him a longer look through the exhibition schedule, there’s still not all that much need for Cootes to start his Canucks career this season.

This is not based on his NHL readiness. Through Rookie Camp, Training Camp, and now the exhibition schedule, Cootes has absolutely had the appearance of someone who could, at the very least, keep his head above water in the big leagues. He’s shown off some tremendous vision, he’s clicked well with NHL linemates like Kiefer Sherwood, and he’s found ways to work around his inherent size and strength disparity. These are all great signs from a prospect’s first camp.

It’s also not as if the Canucks don’t need someone like Cootes on the roster right now. He is the only real right-handed centre in the entire organization, and that’s just one component of his fairly unique skillset.

The Canucks’ need for a 2C is well-documented. It’s as-of-yet unclear whether or not Filip Chytil will ever be healthy enough to fill that role, or whether Aatu Räty’s offence will translate enough to the NHL level for him to step into it. As of now, Cootes looks like a good bet to get to that level eventually. And if he can sort of do the job already, and might grow into the role from there, why not start him on that path today?

Ultimately, it comes down to striking a balance between need and practicality.

Few 18-year-olds make the jump to the NHL right from junior hockey, and even fewer who were drafted outside the top five. It happens – Zach Benson made the Buffalo Sabres right after being drafted at 13th overall in 2023, Cole Sillinger did it after being drafted at 12th overall in 2021 – but it’s rare, and even more rare that it leads to any immediate success.

The reason for this is that most 18-year-olds still have plenty of development left to be had at the junior level, and this is certainly the case for Cootes.

This is not a player who has topped out in his ability to dominate major junior hockey. Thus far, Cootes has only played two full seasons in the WHL. In his first, he played 64 games and scored 35 points. Then, in the most recent season, he significantly improved on that mark with 60 games and 63 points. Then, he was drafted

Those 63 points in 60 games are a fine total for someone who spent much of the season being 17, but they’re not exactly bursting off the stat page. It had Cootes at 48th overall in WHL scoring. For a player who hopes to be a top-six fixture in the NHL one day, you’d ideally want to see at least one further step forward in junior production. Were Cootes to return to the WHL, the expectation would be for him to put down something close to a 100-point season, assuming he remains healthy. In other words, he’s still got plenty to prove at the WHL level, and specifically, some further development to do of his offensive game.

There’s also the physical development to consider. Cootes is currently a bit slight, weighing in at about 6’0” and 183 pounds. As we said earlier, he’s finding ways to battle around that right now. In the longer term, however, he’ll need to add muscle. And that’s probably going to be easier for him to do with his WHL team in Seattle than it is with one of the hardest-travelling teams in professional hockey.

With the Thunderbirds, Cootes would still do the majority of his travel on the weekends, leaving ample gym time throughout the week. That should work out better than attempting to both keep up with the rigours of NHL hockey and trying to add strength at the same time. Many junior players add muscle throughout the season. Most NHL players lose muscle.

From the team’s perspective, there are some roster practicalities to consider. As has been widely discussed already, the Canucks are slightly overstocked with forwards right now. Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Jake DeBrusk, Evander Kane, Conor Garland, Filip Chytil, Nils Höglander, Drew O’Connor, Teddy Blueger, Kiefer Sherwood, Linus Karlsson, Aatu Räty, and Arshdeep Bains are all in line to make the team, which is 13 forwards already, and that’s not even counting some of the other names making a push like Vitali Kravtsov, Max Sasson, and Chase Stillman.

Put Cootes on the team, and one of those 13 has to be cut to make room for him. That feels unnecessary at this juncture.

Something necessary at this juncture, however, is for the Canucks to figure out what they actually have on hand at centre. As we mentioned earlier in the article, there are some major question marks surrounding both Chytil and Räty right now, but perhaps those question marks will be answered with a resounding ‘yes.’ It feels like a higher priority to see if either Chytil or Räty has what it takes to be an NHL 2C so that the team can more properly assess their place in the long-term picture.

Cootes, meanwhile, is already far less of a question mark. He looks to be a high-floor prospect, and there’s far less immediacy in seeing what he’s made of.

These are not the Canucks of yesteryear, who were often fielding several forwards who reasonably shouldn’t have been in the NHL. Back then, any prospect who showed even the slightest potential was often rushed into big league action due to little more than desperation for talent. That’s not the case anymore. There are plenty of forwards with potential available here outside of Cootes, and so it’s okay to take a longer view on his development.

Which brings us to a final point: that this has never really worked out for the Canucks in the past. The Canucks haven’t had a player leap straight into the NHL in their post-draft season since Quinn Hughes, and he only played five games at the tail-end of 2018-19 – plus, we can all agree that Hughes is a very special individual. Before him, you’ve got to go all the way back to 1990 and Petr Nedved to find another.

However, what the Canucks can find plenty of in their team history are prospects who were brought into the NHL fold too early and whose development suffered as a result.

Now, if there’s one scenario in which a Cootes audition makes sense, it’s the scenario of a long-term injury to an established forward in the preseason. Which happens – Höglander left Wednesday’s game with an as-of-yet-undisclosed malady. Were that to happen, and more specifically to one of Chytil, Räty, Elias Pettersson, or Teddy Blueger, then it might make sense to give Cootes his nine-game cameo, if for no other reason than to give him a taste of the NHL and because he’s earned it.

But any more than that, and now the Canucks are burning off a year of Cootes’ entry-level contract – and that’s best avoided. If Cootes is truly part of the long-term picture here, maintaining maximum contract control is beneficial to the Canucks. It’s best for the bottom line if Cootes’ contract slides this year.

Chances are good that, with new rule changes coming into effect, the Canucks will have the ability to assign Cootes to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks as a 19-year-old next year. If they do, and if the rules regarding entry-level deals don’t shift too much, there’s a possibility that his contract slides for 2026-27. That would presumably have a very NHL-ready Cootes arriving in 2027-28 with all three years of his ELC still intact.

Really, there’s a very natural progression here:

The Canucks send Cootes back to the WHL this year, with the expectation that he will dominate offensively, all the while they see what they have in Chytil and Räty.

Cootes then returns to camp in 2026 with something to prove, but also with the distinct possibility that he spends the year in the AHL, acclimating to professional hockey. The Canucks, meanwhile, have continued to roll with Chytil and/or Räty, or have explored other options already.

Then, when there is no real doubt that he’s got little to learn at the lower levels, Cootes can be fully inked in to a spot for 2027, now 20 years old and far more ready to make an immediate and lasting impact.

It’s a great thing that Cootes has sparked this discussion. Few gave him any real hope of making the Canucks after being drafted, but he put in the work this offseason and at this Training Camp to at least make it interesting. Really, it’s a best-case scenario. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will actually make the cut. And given the practicalities at play, barring any injuries, it probably shouldn’t.

Cootes is proving to be a terrific draft pick. The kind that is well worth waiting for, rather than placing in the spotlight at the earliest possible moment.