Hockey is finally back after a long offseason, and the Vancouver Canucks are only hours away from playing their first game against a team other than themselves. After three days of drills, line rushes, and a lot of teaching from their new coaching staff, they are ready to start the preseason against the Seattle Kraken. But before we turn our attention to watching some real hockey, we have to talk about what has happened in training camp.
Blue vs. White Scrimmage
The Canucks held their annual blue vs. white scrimmage on Sunday in front of a large crowd in Penticton. In a game played over two 25-minute running time periods, Team White came out on top with a 4-1 win. Kiefer Sherwood, Arshdeep Bains, Vilmer Alriksson and Brock Boeser provided the offence for Team White while Teddy Blueger scored the lone goal for Team Blue.
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The scrimmage was relatively low-event, with the only real chances coming from the Sherwood, Braeden Cootes and Bains line. They were in the offensive zone for a lot of their shifts and scored two goals. Nikita Tolopilo was the busiest of the four goaltenders, keeping Team White in the 1-0 lead when Team Blue poured it on at the beginning of the second period. Eventually, his team extended the lead to 3-0 before Blueger finally got on the board for Team Blue with a quick deke on a partial breakaway, roofing it over Tolopilo’s shoulder.
Boeser capped off the scoring after an impressive individual effort by the noticeably quicker Elias Pettersson, who raced in on an unsuspecting Filip Hronek, stripped him of the puck and fed Boeser for a one-timer into the empty net. While it was only a scrimmage, he looked an awful lot like Pavel Datsyuk on that play, someone that he was initially compared to in his rookie season.
Braeden Cootes Turning Heads
One player that has been turning heads in training camp is Cootes. He hasn’t looked like a prospect participating in his first NHL training camp, standing out over veterans like Drew O’Connor, Aatu Raty and Vitali Kravtsov. The coaching staff has thrown a lot of praise his way over the last three days, highlighting his smarts, poise, and overall game, as he continues to centre a line usually reserved for a more seasoned player.
“He’s a smart player. I saw that on the rush, especially,” said head coach Adam Foote after Day 1. “We did a lot of rushes, where he was really good. He knows when to hold up, he knows when to stay level as a unit of three, he knows when to drive. He knows when he could be the scoop guy on the weak side. I saw his brain today, which I love” (from ‘Canucks: Is the door slightly ajar for rookie Braeden Cootes?,’ The Province, 9/18/25).
Assistant coach Brett McLean had similar things to say on Day 2: “He had a really good day… getting on pucks, and he’s obviously smart and creative in some of the drills. He’s not just excited to be here — he’s here to make an impression. And he’s done that.”
Cootes even made the social media highlight reel on Day 2, making veteran defenceman Tyler Myers look silly on a rush drill, as he deked past his step-up attempt and left him in the dust in the neutral zone. While it was only practice, that’s a pretty deft move to execute on a defender that recently played his 1,000th game in the NHL.
All in all, it will be exciting to see what Cootes can do in the preseason, because he’s definitely earned the right to play a few games over the next three weeks. If he performs well, we might see him suit up on opening night against the Calgary Flames. But he’s not looking that far ahead. In fact, he’s been humble about his progression so far, saying, “I think I measure up pretty well, but just getting bigger, faster, stronger, all the cliché things…I’m still 18, so I got time, which is nice.”
Judging by all the reports out of training camp, Cootes is ready for the NHL. But we won’t know for sure until we see him in a real game against NHL defenders – which will come in a few hours, as he’s set to suit up against the Kraken.
Adam Foote & Kevin Dean’s Systems Starting to Take Shape
One of the big storylines of training camp has been the coaching staff and what systems they are trying to implement for this season. Foote initially said in his season-opening press conference that he wants the entire team to have the identity of a chameleon, able to adjust to whatever opponent they face. “We want to be able to adapt against our opponents,” said Foote. “I can’t sit here and say we’re going to be a rush team or a dump-and-chase team. We’re going to be a team that adapts to our opponents [and] make them feel uncomfortable.”
We obviously won’t get to see that chameleon identity until the regular season, but after three days of practice and a scrimmage, some themes have emerged. The biggest one is aggressive play from the defencemen and a willingness to jump into the rush whenever they can. It was seen many times during the scrimmage, specifically from Victor Mancini, Kirill Kudryavtsev, and Pierre-Olivier Joseph, who went deep into the offensive zone and ended up with a scoring chance.
“I want them [the defencemen] to defend the inside ice first and foremost, and then close hard and quickly,” said new assistant coach Kevin Dean, who will run the defence this season. “Get the puck up to the forwards as quickly as we can and be a part of the offence.”
Related: Meet the New Canucks’ Assistant Coaches Kevin Dean, Scott Young & Brett McLean
Not all of the Canucks’ defencemen are offensively inclined, but as Marcus Pettersson said on Day 2, they all are great puckmovers and can jump into the rush. It doesn’t always have to be the one-man transition machine, Quinn Hughes, making all the plays.
“Just keep playing a simple game and keep an attacking mindset. I think we’ve got to try not to pass anything up. We’ve got great puck movers who move the puck quickly. Quinn’s a deal breaker back there, and he can move the puck so well, whether it’s skating or making plays, passing the puck, or shooting. Everybody knows a lot of it goes through him, but we all can chip in a little bit and give our forward some good looks.”
We will get to see some of that system in the preseason, and if training camp is any indication, it should be fun to watch. The Canucks have the skill and speed to be an aggressive team in every zone, which is exactly what won them the Pacific Division in 2023-24. It’s a good sign that Foote and his staff are seemingly heading back to that, because it definitely was successful that season.
Preseason Hockey Starts Tonight
As mentioned, the Canucks start their preseason schedule tonight against the Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena. The group heading to Seattle was confirmed this morning, and will include the Canucks’ last three first-round picks, Cootes (2025), Tom Willander (2023), and Jonathan Lekkerimaki (2022). It will also include bubble players Baines, Pierre-Olivier Joseph, and Elias Pettersson. The big boys will stay at home to likely play on Wednesday at Abbotsford Centre to give the home crowd a star-studded lineup.
This lineup doesn’t have a lot of NHL veterans, but it should still be fun to watch. The rookies will get a baptism by fire experience, as the Kraken will probably ice most of their NHL roster. We will see how Cootes and Willander handle it. The action starts at 5 pm PT and will be streamed on Canucks.com.
