Braeden Cootes wasn’t supposed to make the Canucks’ NHL roster, but he just might

“Even getting able to play against some of their top guys that I watched a lot,” Cootes said. “Obviously I have a good bit of family and friends here, so it was pretty cool to hear the cheer.”

“Yeah, I think the first shift there, they just kind of scored – it was pretty crazy. But, yeah, those were two guys that, you know, I’ve watched a lot growing up and are just two unbelievable players. But, yeah, it was cool to go up against them.”

The cheers rang through in the third, when Cootes spun a puck towards the Oilers’ net front that banked off Mattias Ekholm’s skate and past a turned-around Stuart Skinner.

“We’ve got a big kind of friend group, my parents are in and stuff, so they all came out,” Cootes said. “So, yeah, it’s really cool.”

Cootes was a big reason the Canucks gave the Oilers’ top guns a challenge. The outcome wasn’t one he and his teammates wanted, but the score was a lot closer than expected on paper. “I thought it was really good. They had a lot of their lineup in, they’re a really good team,” Cootes said. “We had a bit of some younger guys and we fought really hard. I thought we kind of took over that third period and almost got it to overtime.”

Cootes hasn’t been playing like an 18-year-old afraid to make a mistake, and everyone’s taking notice. His skills still have plenty of room to grow, but his hockey IQ and confidence are already where they need to be.

Cootes credits that to the repeated reps. “You feel more comfortable as you play with them. I mean you get to know the guys more, it feels more normal than like, ‘oh I’m in the NHL’ kind of thing. It feels more normal and it gets more easy each game.”

The Canucks have made it clear they want to fix their hole at centre on the second line – Jim Rutherford said as much again on Monday – but Cootes is likely not the solution they’re looking for: a bonafide top-six centre with a veteran presence. But at the very least, Cootes is giving them a reason to question if he can in fact do the job.

In some ways, that’s a testament to how quickly Cootes has risen through the ranks. But it’s also raised some roster-related alarms considering how easily he’s cruised to the top of the depth chart on a team that considers itself a playoff contender.

And yet, here Cootes is, still taking the line rushes and skating with the big club. It seems more and more likely that he’ll extend his stay beyond opening night and into the nine-game NHL tryout that won’t trigger his ELC. Whether he stays beyond that will be based on whether the Canucks find their 2C solution, or perhaps just how much he continues to defy the odds.