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We donâ€t mean his voice, literally, although Cootes does seem to possess the same maturity and older-than-a-teenage soul that Horvat brought to the Vancouver Canucks a little more than a decade ago.

Itâ€s the thumbnail scouting report, the National Hockey League projections, for Cootes that make the Canucks†first-round pick from June feel a little like Horvat 2.0.

If you think back to that chaotic draft in New Jersey in 2013, when former Canucks general manager Mike Gillis traded goalie Cory Schneider to the Devils for the right to select Horvat 13th, Vancouver was getting a sturdy, character centre with leadership qualities, a guy who might not be a star but embraced a reliable two-way game.

Even with a modest offensive ceiling, Horvat could become a good, third-line centre at the NHL level. The Canucks†future captain, of course, became much more than that.

Horvatâ€s skating exploded after his draft year and at age 19 he made the Canucks as a fourth liner, then spent most of his final eight seasons in Vancouver in the top six.

Also exuding leadership and respected for his mature, two-way game, Cootes already had NHL-caliber wheels when GM Patrik Allvin selected him 15th overall from the Seattle Thunderbirds in this yearâ€s draft. Now the right-shot centre from Edmonton is trying to make the Canucks at age 18.

Despite the Braeden Cootes Train getting quickly out of control on talk radio and social media, this is highly unlikely. But the way Cootes has handled his first week with the Canucks since training camp opened, itâ€s not impossible.

Whether the market is getting carried away or not, itâ€s undeniable that Cootes is an incredibly positive story with a fan base desperate for some.

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“I only knew that he’s from Edmonton, so I was excited just to meet him,†veteran Canuck and Alberta native Jake DeBrusk said after Thursdayâ€s practice. “But just his preparation for the season, you know, seeing how fast he was able to get up to pace, I think thatâ€s the biggest thing. He can fly.

“But honestly, I’m most impressed with just the style he plays. He plays the right way. And you don’t really see too many young kids play the right way. I’m excited to see the future for him.â€

Elias Pettersson, the only centre drafted between Horvat and Cootes with the Canucks†top pick, made the NHL as a 19-year-old in 2018.

“From what I’ve seen so far, he looks good,†Pettersson said of Cootes. “Thereâ€s a lot of skill. It looks like he’s been training hard and always wants to be better every day. So I really like what I’ve seen so far.â€

Cootes is expected to play his second pre-season game when the Seattle Kraken visit the Canucks Friday night at Rogers Arena. The Thunderbirds captain, who also captained Team Canada to the Under-18 world championship in May, was one of the better Canucks in Sundayâ€s 5-3 loss in Seattle.

He had 26 goals and 63 points in 60 games in the Western Hockey League last season, similar to Horvatâ€s 33 and 61 in 67 games in the Ontario Hockey League during his draft year.

On Tuesday, after the Canucks took a day off to recover from camp in Penticton, Cootes was the last player to leave the practice ice at the University of B.C.

“I mean, I just love being on the ice,†Cootes told Sportsnet after finally surrendering to trainers who needed to pack up equipment. “Itâ€s something that I love doing. Iâ€m working on my game, but itâ€s also just the joy of it. A bit of both.â€

Asked about his strong first impression with coaches, teammates and fans, Cootes said: “Just playing my game, being comfortable, not really trying to do anything that’s over complicated or anything. Just playing, you know, like I did in Seattle last year because that’s the reason they picked me.

“Iâ€m just sticking with the process of everything. I mean, my focus right now is, you know, just focus on practice, making sure I know all the systems and stuff like that. And being good in practice, too, and the pre-season as well. I still have a lot to prove if I want to get that nine-game sample. So Iâ€m just trying to take it day by day.â€

In Cootes†defence, we mentioned to him the potential for up to nine regular season NHL games, the limit for junior players before a year burns off their entry-level contract.

Guelph Storm centre Jett Luchanko, chosen 13th by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2024 draft, played four pointless NHL games last fall as an 18-year-old before he was returned to junior.

“Yeah, for sure, he was the guy that I saw last year do it,†Cootes said. “And I think that I could do the same thing — seeing a guy that’s a similar playing style to me.â€

But the Canucks are not in a similar position to the Flyers.

Philadelphia missed the playoffs last season for a fifth straight year and is still trying to build its team around a core of young or youngish players.

The Canucks are desperate to rebound from last seasonâ€s upheaval and return to something resembling the 109-point team they were two years ago.

With a rookie head coach in Adam Foote, a superstar defenceman in Quinn Hughes who is a year away from making a franchise-altering decision on his future, an experienced, in-their-prime core and a lot of pressure on management, the Canucks need to burst from the starting blocks in October like Usain Bolt.

If Cootes is going to make the team, at the expense of a waiver-eligible prospect like, say, Aatu Raty, it must be because Foote and Allvin believe he helps them win now — and will help them for 82 games, not just a few.

“For all the young players here, the mindset is earning another day,†Allvin told reporters this week. “I donâ€t think he should look too far ahead of himself. We all know the veteran guys are picking it up here once we get closer to opening night, so for them (young players), itâ€s just to learn every day. So far, heâ€s definitely earned his way.â€

Foote said: “Heâ€s taking the opportunity and earning another day.â€

Cootes is thinking only about that next day, not what might happen when the roster is set for the Canucks†season-opener on Oct. 9.

“I mean, I try not to focus on it too much,†he said. “Obviously, you have that confidence in the back of your head that you can make it. Anytime you go into a camp, you’re not just going there to get experience. That’s not my mindset. I’m a competitive person. Anytime I go to a tryout or anything like that, I want to make the team. But, you know, if they send me back to juniors, obviously itâ€s not the end of the world. I’m still really young and can have a big year in Seattle. But Iâ€m just trying to focus day by day right now.â€

ICE CHIPS — Absent from practice on Tuesday for precautionary reasons, and held out of Wednesdayâ€s 3-1 pre-season win against the Calgary Flames, winger Conor Garland fully practised Thursday. . . Assistant coach Scott Young, who handled the media availability, said winger Nils Hoglander was undergoing further testing after leaving Wednesdayâ€s game with an apparent foot or ankle injury. . . Veterans Tyler Myers and Thatcher Demko were given the day off, and goalie Kevin Lankinen was still away after becoming a new dad on Tuesday.

The practice group expected to play Friday lined up like this:

DeBrusk-Pettersson-Boeser; Kane-Cootes-Lekkerimaki; Kravtsov-Blueger-Sherwood; Alriksson-Raty-MacEachern.

Hughes-Hronek; Kudryavtsev-Joseph; Elias Pettersson-Willander

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