Braeden Cootes is a Canadian center in the Vancouver Canucks organization, taken 15th overall in the 2025 NHL Draft, and he has worn the C for Canada at the U18 Worlds and at the 2026 World Junior Summer Showcase. At the 2026 World Juniors itself, Braeden Cootes played mostly on Canada’s fourth line and averaged under nine minutes a game. He is from Sherwood Park, just outside Edmonton, which is where the 2027 tournament is being played.
| Fast facts: Braeden Cootes | |
|---|---|
| Current team | Abbotsford Canucks, AHL |
| Position | Center |
| Shoots | Right |
| Born | 9 February 2007, Sherwood Park, Alberta |
| Height / weight | 5’11” (180 cm) / 183 lbs, per the NHL’s register |
| Drafted | 2025, first round, 15th overall, Vancouver Canucks |
| Contract status | Three-year entry-level deal agreed 9 July 2025, per the Canucks. EliteProspects lists a cap hit of $974,166 and a term running to 2028-29 |
| World Juniors | Canada, 2026, bronze medal. No. 8, seven games, two goals |
| Jersey | 8 with Canada at the 2026 World Juniors, 86 in Vancouver |
What did Braeden Cootes do at the 2026 World Juniors?
Braeden Cootes wore No. 8 for Canada at the 2026 World Juniors, played all seven games, and scored two goals as Canada took bronze. Hockey Canada’s tournament roster lists the number. One of the two goals came in the bronze medal game against Finland, early in the first period to put Canada 2-1 up, on a pass from Keaton Verhoeff.
The role is the part that stands out. The Hockey News reported that he played “predominantly on Canada’s fourth line” and averaged 8:48 of ice time across the seven games, dropping to 6:21 in the bronze medal game. CanucksArmy reported that he started on the right wing in the top six, moved down after the second game and came off both special teams. Asked about the tournament afterward, he told the same site it was “a step in the right direction from the year before.”
Cootes averaged 8:48 a game for Canada at the 2026 World Juniors, and in October 2026 his AHL general manager put his workload in Abbotsford at more than double that. Ryan Johnson said that “it’s the puck touches”, that Cootes “is playing on a first-unit power play; he’s killing penalties”, and that “he’s playing 20-22 minutes per night”.
Will Braeden Cootes play at the 2027 World Juniors?
As of 31 October 2026, nothing is decided, because Canada has not named a selection camp roster. The tournament runs from 26 December 2026 to 5 January 2027 in Edmonton and Red Deer, and our World Juniors guide has the schedule and the groups. Cootes grew up watching Oilers games at Rogers Place, where Canada plays its group stage.
Two things have to happen first. Vancouver would have to release him from the AHL, which no one in the organization has commented on, and he would have to be healthy. Misha Donskov, Canada’s head coach for 2027, said in July 2026 that Cootes “is a guy that is a consistent every-dayer, and that’s a big part of what we’re trying to instill”, without saying anything about the roster or about who will captain the team.
What are Braeden Cootes’s career stats?
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | P | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Seattle Thunderbirds | WHL | 64 | 14 | 21 | 35 | 16 |
| 2024-25 | Seattle Thunderbirds | WHL | 60 | 26 | 37 | 63 | 18 |
| 2024-25 | Canada U18 | U18 Worlds | 7 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 0 |
| 2025-26 | Seattle Thunderbirds | WHL | 17 | 10 | 13 | 23 | 2 |
| 2025-26 | Prince Albert Raiders | WHL | 28 | 14 | 26 | 40 | 6 |
| 2025-26 | Vancouver Canucks | NHL | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025-26 | Canada U20 | World Juniors | 7 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Completed seasons. Seattle traded him to Prince Albert on 6 January 2026, where he added 23 points in 20 playoff games before the Raiders lost the WHL final to Everett in five games. He won the Brad Hornung Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s most sportsmanlike player on 22 April 2026.
Why is Braeden Cootes playing in the AHL instead of the NHL?
Vancouver assigned Cootes to the Abbotsford Canucks on 25 September 2026, and Abbotsford general manager Ryan Johnson has explained the thinking at length. “I sat with Braeden at training camp; I mapped this out with the two of us, not me telling him,” Johnson said on 24 October 2026, adding that he wants him “to experience anything and everything he can at the American League level before he comes here” and that “I am in no hurry.”
Cootes had already played three NHL games in October 2025. He made Vancouver’s opening roster on 6 October 2025, one of very few 18-year-olds the club has carried out of camp, debuted three days later in a 5-1 win over Calgary and played 11:14 in that game before being sent back to Seattle on 14 October. The channels and streams for every Canucks game are in our guide to how to watch the Vancouver Canucks.
When was Braeden Cootes injured?
Cootes left an Abbotsford practice early on Friday, 23 October 2026, and missed the next four games. A team spokesperson described him as “dinged up” the following day, and a Canucks representative then called it a lower-body injury. Nothing more specific than that was given publicly: no diagnosis, no timeline, and no return date. Abbotsford kept winning without him.
Why did Braeden Cootes become a captain at 17?
Seattle made Cootes captain in 2024-25, when he was the youngest captain in the WHL that season, and his coach there put it down to how he had always behaved rather than to anything he said. “There’s a reason why we made him our captain at 17,” Matt O’Dette told NHL.com, adding that “he’s a guy that, when he speaks, guys are going to listen to him.” O’Dette also told chl.ca that as a younger player “the older guys were literally fighting to get Braeden on their team” in the dressing room’s three-on-three games.
Cootes describes himself the other way round. “I may not be the loudest guy, I kind of just lead by example and do all the little things right,” he said before the 2025 draft. “I speak up when I have to.” He went on to captain Canada to U18 gold in May 2025 and was named one of Canada’s three best players at that tournament, both of which the Canucks noted when they signed him. Canada beat Sweden 7-0 in the final. He wore the C again in Canada’s Summer Showcase opener on 29 July 2026, with Carson Carels and Brady Martin wearing the A.
Where is Braeden Cootes from?
Cootes is Canadian, born on 9 February 2007 in Sherwood Park, Alberta, a town immediately east of Edmonton, and he played his minor hockey at the Sherwood Park Athletic Club. Canucks teammate Jake DeBrusk, who grew up in the same area, posted an old photograph of the two of them from those years after Cootes made his NHL debut.
What number does Braeden Cootes wear?
Cootes wore No. 8 for Canada at the 2026 World Juniors and No. 86 in Vancouver. No jersey number has been published for his time in Abbotsford, and none has been announced for the 2027 World Juniors.
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