{"id":354446,"date":"2025-12-19T01:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/354446\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T01:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T01:25:07","slug":"canucks-prospect-cootes-outduels-players-drafted-before-him-ahead-of-world-juniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/354446\/","title":{"rendered":"Canucks prospect Cootes outduels players drafted before him ahead of World Juniors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Vancouver Canucks need a few more wins at the draft table.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, Braeden Cootes appears to be a clear victory for the franchise.<\/p>\n<p>The 18-year-old was a <a href=\"https:\/\/dailyhive.com\/vancouver\/cootes-has-done-something-not-seen-by-canucks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">surprising addition to the Canucks\u2019 opening night roster<\/a> back in October, following a stellar training camp and preseason showing.<\/p>\n<p>Although he wasn\u2019t ready to defy the odds and become a full-time NHLer, as mid-first-round pick Benjamin Kindel has done with the Pittsburgh Penguins, his addition to a Canucks team that just traded a franchise player away has been a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but his spot on Canada\u2019s 2026 World Junior squad has further given the Canucks reason to feel good about their work at the most recent NHL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s World Junior roster <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/scottcwheeler\/status\/2001690548457861165\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">is nearly set<\/a> after the latest cuts, and Cootes is assuredly going to be a key member of the squad.<\/p>\n<p>What should make the Canucks feel good, however, is that among the final three cuts, two were drafted ahead of Cootes.<\/p>\n<p>As Canada whittled down its roster, forward Jake O\u2019Brien and defencemen Jackson Smith were released from the team.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Brien was just drafted eighth overall by the Seattle Kraken back in June. Smith went one pick ahead of Cootes to the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>Not only that, but a couple of other Canadian kids drafted ahead of Cootes also did not make the World Junior squad.<\/p>\n<p>Roger McQueen, drafted 10th overall by the Anaheim Ducks, was left off the World Junior team. He\u2019s off to a good start in the NCAA, but has missed a ton of time due to injuries over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n<p>Jack Nesbitt, drafted 12th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers back in June, also wasn\u2019t in the mix to land a spot.<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, Nesbitt was selected with the pick that the Canucks had via the J.T. Miller trade, only to flip it to the Pittsburgh Penguins within a matter of hours.<\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh then traded down in the first round, while the Flyers traded up to nab Nesbitt.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps they should have selected Cootes instead, but the Canucks are sure happy that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vancouver Canucks need a few more wins at the draft table. Thankfully, Braeden Cootes appears to be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-354446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}