There are just a few days left before the calendar flips to the 2025-2026 NHL season. With only two possible games remaining on the schedule, the NHL draft is right around the corner.

The NHL held the draft combine in Buffalo earlier in June. We didn’t cover it too closely because, well, neither did the Vancouver Canucks.

Both President of Hockey Operations Jim Rutherford and General Manager Patrik Allvin did not head East to evaluate some of hockey’s best prospects. Although, the Canucks still had representation in Western New York, sending Director of Scouting Todd Harvey and Assistant General Manager Cammi Granato in their place.

While in Buffalo, it was reported that the Canucks representatives took centre prospect Braeden Cootes out for dinner.

Following the combine, Cootes joined Donnie & Dhali to discuss how the dinner went, but shared that the Canucks weren’t the only team that spoke with him:

“Well, I didn’t go for dinner there with anybody else specifically at the combine. I’ve gone out with other teams throughout the year, but I think I had 27 interviews, so it was a busy week. But yeah, that was the only team I went for dinner with at the combine.”

The prospect also spoke on what Harvey said regarding him as a player:

“I think he just likes the way I have that hard skill a lot of people call it; I can skate well, I compete really hard. That was pretty much it, they’ll be honest he didn’t talk too much about hockey, it was a lot of just getting to know each other, stuff away from the rink.”

The Seattle Thunderbirds scored 26 goals and 63 points through 60 games this past year. The right-shot centre is known for his 200-foot game, and he also carries leadership qualities as the Captain of his junior team. The Canucks’ biggest organizational need is down the middle of the ice. And after a rift tarnished the locker room, having a two-way centre who can also take the lead as a young player within the organization could help right the ship down the road.

Cootes is ranked all over the first round. According to Elite Prospects, The Hockey News has Cootes ranked as the 13th best prospect, with TSN’s Bob McKenzie and Craig Button having the lowest ranking on the young centre at 22nd overall. The Canucks are clearly interested in the player, and it appears he could be available around 15th overall.

But will the Canucks still be there to draft him?

Their 15th overall pick has been burning a hole in their pocket since they were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. So why haven’t they traded that yet?

Well, GMs around the league usually wait until after the Stanley Cup Final is awarded before they make trades. Now, that isn’t always the case, as we saw the New York Rangers trade Chris Kreider to the Anaheim Ducks. But more often than not, they’re waiting.

Another possibility as to why we haven’t heard of a trade yet is because of Abbotsford’s Calder Cup playoff run. The 15th overall pick, especially in a top-heavy draft, doesn’t hold much value as it is. And when your target is a second-line centre, you’re likely needing to add to that first-round pick.

The Canucks can’t really afford to trade many of their roster players, so young players and prospects – who’re likely playing for Abbotsford right now – are the sweeteners other teams covet to get trades like these over the finish line.

If we could bring you back to Rutherford’s end-of-season media availability. There was one comment he said that, now looking back on it, seems like a hint at what might be to come this offseason:

It’s the italicized sentence above. Rutherford wanted to point out how they’ve stuck to their plan of building with young talent throughout his time here. But now highlighting that to this point, they haven’t traded away one of their younger players, seems like he is preparing the market for a trade of one of their younger players.

Even in the same quote, Rutherford said they are more likely to trade for the players they need, rather than sign them in free agency:

“We have to have some good, hard work by Patrik and his staff this offseason. Have some good luck. Maybe we get a good free agent to come here. I think it’s more likely that we’re going to have to trade for the players that we’re going to need, and if we have a good off-season, we can jump back up pretty good again.”

While it looks like the Canucks have Cootes higher on their board than most, with the comments management made in their exit interviews, paired with them not showing up to the NHL draft combine, would lead us to believe that Vancouver will not be taking Cootes (or anybody) at the upcoming draft.

Read our draft profile of Cootes below!