There’s no shortcut into the NHL, and Braeden Cootes isn’t pretending otherwise.
But the Vancouver Canucks prospect is doing plenty to make the conversation interesting again. After a three-day development camp wrapped up Thursday with a 3-on-3 tournament, Cootes was the player who kept popping. He scored on a breakaway at speed, flashed quick hands in tight, buried a cheeky backhand to the short side high and kept slipping past defenders with the kind of confidence that turns heads fast.
Canucks development coach Mikael Samuelsson certainly noticed.
“He’s impressive,” said Canucks development coach Mikael Samuelsson. “It looked like he was on a mission to go somewhere else (in the NHL) and not be at a development camp.
He plays at a high pace and skill, and wanted to be a difference-maker out here. It’s fun to see.
He’s been like that the whole week.
“Standing first in line for skating drills, and he wants more. He wants to have the puck around him.”
That edge has been building. Cootes already got three NHL games under his belt last season, including a debut that came with the Calgary Flames targeting him as part of the usual rookie welcome. Now he looks like a player who’s carrying that experience into a bigger summer and a more convincing push for a roster spot.
The 19-year-old center also put together a huge WHL season split between Seattle and Prince Albert, finishing with 63 points - 24 goals and 39 assists - in 45 games after the Canucks made him the 15th overall pick in the 2025 NHL draft. That kind of production, along with his two-way game, has put him squarely in the mix.
Still, there’s another path sitting there: the AHL. At 6-foot and 183 pounds, the Sherwood Park, Alta., native could go to Abbotsford, play big minutes, work every situation and stay close to the parent club while he keeps climbing.
Cootes, though, is aiming higher.
“I’m still trying to get to the NHL. It’s not like I can be comfortable and I have to keep working to get better,” stressed Cootes. “I think I can be a leader out here (development camp), and I’ve been in the organization a year and know how they run things.”
He also said the three NHL games helped him feel more settled heading into this year.
“I think I’m prepared a lot more mentally. I can be a little tentative in new situations and being in those games - I know it was just three NHL games - but it really helped me in getting to know everybody and hanging out with older guys.
It helped to get the experience and be more comfortable. I’m a lot more ready this year.
“There was a lot going in that first game and it happened quick because nobody expected me to make the team. I don’t know if I was fully mentally ready for it, but it was fun and good to get it under my belt.
“I want to be better than last year and it will be pretty easy to tell if I’m ready or not. I just don’t want to be there (NHL) to survive, I want to make an impact, produce, and help the team win.
If I’m not doing that, then maybe the AHL is the right path. But I’m confident I can help this team and that’s my goal.”
The comparison that comes to mind is Nick Suzuki. Not the biggest center, but quick, responsible and dangerous off the rush - the kind of player who keeps adding more to his game. Suzuki reached the 100-point mark this season with 29 goals and 72 assists and won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best two-way pivot.
Cootes sees that path, too.
“That’s for sure a guy I could be one day and that’s my goal,” added Cootes. “A really good player I like to watch and kind of a similar path (first-round picks) and the same size with similar skill sets.”
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Canucks First Round Pick Takes A New Path That Fans Keep Debating
Aleksei Malhotras route to his next stop has already made him one of the more closely watched young names in the Canucks pipeline. Two seasons ago he was with the Chilliwack Chiefs in the BCHL, then he jumped to the OHLs Brantford Bulldogs and found another level offensively, putting together a much bigger scoring season and backing it up again in the playoffs.
Now Malhotra has said he will take the NCAA path this fall at Boston University, where hell be part of a lineup that already includes Canucks prospects Aiden Celebrini and Niklas Aaram-Olsen. The move also fits the wider ripple effect of the NCAAs new scholarship rules for major junior players, a change that helped steer his decision toward Brantford in the first place and left plenty of debate around what the better development track should have been all along. [Read more 🡒]