Canucks cut 17 players from preseason roster; Cootes, Lekkerimäki remain

Of all 14 skaters cut from the preseason roster, only Kudryavtsev (two assists), Stillman (one goal) and LaBate (one assist) hit the scoresheet. Young was the only netminder of the three assigned to AHL Abbotsford who appeared in the preseason. He came in at the midway point of the second period of the Canucks’ first preseason game against the Seattle Kraken, where he allowed four goals on 10 shots, finishing with an 8.889 goals against average and a .600 save percentage.

After these moves, the Canucks are left with 18 forwards, 11 defencemen, and three goalies on their roster.

Forwards: Nils Aman, Arshdeep Bains, Teddy Blueger, Brock Boeser, Filip Chytil, Braeden Cootes, Jake DeBrusk, Conor Garland, Nils Höglander, Evander Kane, Linus Karlsson, Vitali Kravtsov, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Drew O’Connor, Elias Pettersson, Aatu Räty, Max Sasson and Kiefer Sherwood.

Defencemen: Derek Forbort, Filip Hronek, Quinn Hughes, PO Joseph, Victor Mancini, Tyler Myers, Elias Pettersson, Marcus Pettersson, and Tom Willander. Guillaume Brisebois and Jett Woo remain on the roster, despite the team sharing that they will not be ready for the start of the season.

Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen and Nikita Tolopilo.

Youngsters Cootes and Lekkerimäki survived this round of roster cuts, as they have impressed for most of the preseason. Both players found the back of the net on Sunday night against the Oilers. Cootes shares a tie for the team lead in points with Hronek, both having three points thus far. Lekkerimäki is just one point behind with two.

The remaining players will have another opportunity to showcase their talents and prove that they deserve to make the roster on Wednesday, October 1, in the Canucks’ penultimate preseason match against the Calgary Flames.