Braeden Cootes does most of his business on a flat piece of ice, but he’s a climber all the same. After rising up the draft ranks in 2025, Cootes wound up being selected by the Vancouver Canucks in the middle of the round at 15^th overall. He springboarded from there to forcing his way onto the Canucks’ opening night roster a few short months later, against all reasonable expectations. He went back down to the WHL after three NHL games, at which point he posted 63 points in just 45 games, and then 23 more in the postseason. Now in line to potentially be the captain of the Canadian entry at the next World Juniors, Cootes just keeps moving on up in the estimation of prospect pundits.

An upward trend like that makes a player tough to predict, and that’s true of Cootes both in the short- and the long-term.

For the 2026-27, Cootes and the Canucks have options. He only turned 19 this past February, and so a return to junior hockey is not only possible, but typical for a player of his age and draft range. That’s an unlikely outcome for Cootes, however, because as of this season, NHL teams are allowed to assign one 19-year-old CHL-developed prospect to their AHL roster (whereas, previously, those players had to wait until at least 20.) That means the Canucks could assign Cootes to the Abbotsford Canucks, where he could continue his development in the pro ranks.

But given Cootes’ showing in Training Camp last year, it also wouldn’t be all that surprising at all if he made the main NHL roster again come October. And if that’s the case, it’s worth wondering where exactly Cootes might fit into the lineup.

We can probably dispense of any notions of Cootes just being ‘squeezed in.’ With that AHL option on the table, if Cootes is anywhere near the periphery of the roster, it will almost certainly be deemed more valuable for him to go down to Abbotsford and see top-line centre deployment.

In other words, Cootes is not going to be lining up as the Canucks’ fourth line centre, or 13^th forward, or anything like that.

If he’s going to be in the NHL full-time to start the 2026-27 campaign, the Canucks will want him in a meaty enough role so as not to hamper his development in any way shape or form. That equates to a top-nine gig at the bare minimum, and ideally something more than that.

Just getting Cootes into the 3C spot doesn’t really take much figuring. Elias Pettersson and Marco Rossi could still line up ahead of him in their default positions of 1C and 2C (whichever is which), and then there’s a decent amount of wingers to choose from to flank each of  them with. Between Jake DeBrusk (for now), Liam Öhgren, Brock Boeser, Linus Karlsson, Drew O’Connor, Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Filip Chytil, and Brendan Gallagher, there’s more than enough on hand to put together three sets of wingers with a decent offensive bent.

There are some potential downsides for other players with this arrangement. Many were hoping for more minutes for Aatu Räty this season, and with Cootes as 3C, that condemns Räty to either fourth line centre deployment or, alternatively, maybe a shift over to the wing for one of those top-nine gigs. The same could be said for Chytil and any hopes of him returning to the middle of the ice, though those seem challenged already.

If it’s just this simple 1-2-3 centre-punch arrangement, one likes the idea of putting Cootes between some larger bodies, like perhaps Öhgren and Karlsson. Over time, one would hope to see his line start to steal minutes and especially offensive opportunities away from Pettersson and Rossi’s units.

Getting Cootes any higher up in the lineup takes a bit more figuring, and a bigger positional shift. Now, there’s no reason to push him into such a lofty spot if he doesn’t earn it outright, but let’s imagine he does, with an even better showing than last year. Barring a trade, to deploy Cootes in a true top-six role in 2026-27 would require one of Pettersson or Rossi to effectively get out of the way.

With the team still trying to resuscitate Pettersson’s career, and with an impetus to either figure out how Marco Rossi can contribute to the rebuild or to juice his value for a future trade, it’s unlikely we’d see either of them directly lose minutes, or be cleanly demoted to a 3C role. Instead, it’s more likely that Cootes in the top-six would mean one of Pettersson or Rossi sliding over to his wing, with Pettersson definitely being the more likely of the two. There’s been some discussion about perhaps occasionally deploying Pettersson as a winger again, where he did some of his best work as part of the Lotto Line back in the day.

Having Pettersson ride shotgun would offer some real insulation to Cootes. Pettersson’s defensive responsibility, the attention he still occasionally draws from defenders, the ability to take the odd face-off – there’s a lot to like about the impact Pettersson could have on Cootes as a linemate. If being back on the wing sparks something in Pettersson, all the better. But either way, a positive impact on Cootes’ long-term development is the far more important goal right now.

Putting Cootes between Pettersson and one of DeBrusk or Öhgren or Karlsson does seem like a method of steering his development curve toward a top-six outcome. Again, we’re only talking this scenario if he shows he’s capable of it in camp, but then we should almost always be expecting Cootes to exceed expectations.

Under a scenario where Cootes is in the top-six, either Räty or Chytil slides in as the 3C, and they’ve still got plenty of decent-quality wingers to choose from there.

(One last note we’ll add to the mix is this: no matter where Cootes plays this season, whether that be NHL, AHL, or WHL, most would agree that he should be released for the WJC tournament in December. Even if he’s the Canucks’ 2C and thriving in that role, there’s still little reason to not let him go lead Team Canada for a couple weeks.)

Perhaps the best way to think of this is that the decision is really in Cootes’ hands – or, more accurately, it’s a decision that he’s going to put directly in the Canucks’ hands with his performance in camp. If he pushes for a top-six gig right away, they can accommodate that. If he just pushes for a roster spot, they can build a supportive third line around him. And if not, he’s probably got a ton of minutes waiting for him down in Abbotsford.