With the regular season opener just four days away, the Vancouver Canucks whittled down their preseason roster even further by cutting two more players on Friday.

General Manager Ryan Johnson announced that the organization has cut forwards Braeden Cootes and Matthew Stienburg.

The Sherwood Park, Alberta native has appeared in all three of the Canucks’ preseason games so far. In the preseason debut against the Seattle Kraken last Saturday, Cootes centred the top line between Arshdeep Bains and Jonathan Lekkerimäki. The Canucks didn’t get on the board until the third period, with Cootes and Bains leading the charge.

Cootes and Bains capitalized on a two-on-one, with the 19-year-old loading up a wrist shot and firing it into the top left corner to get the Canucks on the board. Later in the frame, on the power play, Cootes sent a pass from the left half-wall to Bains at the bottom of the right circle for a one-time goal.

Three nights later against the Calgary Flames, Cootes was paired with two new linemates, Adam Novotný and Trey Fix-Wolansky. That line didn’t click, so head coach Manny Malhotra reconnected Cootes with Bains for the third period, and immediately found success.

Cootes flew down the boards to collect the puck, danced around the perimeter, and showed patience waiting out a Flames defender until a passing lane opened to Bains, who sniped it past Dustin Wold into the far-side corner.

By this point, Cootes had had a hand in all three of the Canucks’ preseason goals.

In the Canucks’ first home game of the preseason, Cootes found himself in a lesser role with most of their NHL regulars making preseason debuts. Cootes centred the fourth line with Paul Cotter and Brendan Gallagher. He played the second-lowest ice time among forwards (11:14), finishing the game with one shot on goal, one hit, one block, a minus-one rating and a 38% faceoff percentage.

Now heading to the AHL to start the season, Cootes will have the opportunity to play a higher role than he would have in the NHL. In the same announcement, Stienburg was also assigned to AHL Abbotsford after clearing waivers.