8 hours ago
Canucks' new draft Braeden Cootes wants to be Brayden Point
The Seattle Thunderbirds have become an NHL prospect engine and the Vancouver Canucks have jumped aboard.
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That much is clear after snagging centre Braeden Cootes 15th overall at the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, a player everyone says plays with heart, has sneaky-good skills and, above all else, is a top-notch leader.
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He was captain of the Thunderbirds and captain of the Canada U18s. Leadership is his thing.
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It's a statement about the culture of his family and the values of his junior team.
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'Above the line,' he said during his first meeting with the media, was a lead value of his team.
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'You keep pounding the stone. It's eventually going to break,' was another.
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Culture in Seattle is huge. So is talent. And scouts tell you that Cootes' playing style hide his skills, but he has them, even if they don't pop.
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'Watch his goals this year,' Seattle GM Bill La Forge said after the Canucks made the pick. His talent and his desire have long been evident.
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When he was 15, he spent the last few months of the WHL season with Seattle. His heart and his skill were so evident even then, he drew the attention of his teammates; he'd be a preferred third player in three-on-three drills. Even veterans like Brad Lambert and Dylan Guenther would pick him.
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'They have a lot of great history of NHL players coming out of that program and Braeden being a captain, a leader of that team, that excited my staff,' Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin said. 'And how he played and how prepared he was and the consistency. And I think that's something in that program that they, from the top, are teaching those young players.'
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Cootes listed a couple former teammates as players he's learned to model his own leadership on: Lucas Ciona, who was captain in Seattle in that first tastes of the WHL in 2022-23, and Lucas Gustafson, who was captain in 2023-24.
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'Two guys I looked up to big time in how they led and just everybody there really,' he explained. 'Like I said, the culture in Seattle, I mean, it's just kind of the person that I became. Obviously what we do there is top notch in how we handle ourselves as people and players.'
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For some time there had been speculation that the Canucks would trade the pick, especially to grab a second-line centre.
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But in the end they went with the future.
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Allvin downplayed what was available.
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'The conversations didn't lead much,' he claimed. Earlier in the week he'd suggested he was willing to trade back, though whether that changed when it became clear he could draft Cootes at 15 he didn't say.
