The Vancouver Canucks sent Braeden Cootes to Abbotsford on Friday, trimming camp days before the regular season opens in Edmonton.
Matthew Stienburg is headed there too. The forward cleared waivers first, which means every other club in the league had a shot at him and passed.
Cootes dressed Thursday night against the Oilers. He logged 11:14 of ice time, which is how a coaching staff handles a player it's still not sold on.
One shot on goal. A minus-1 in a 2-1 loss on home ice.
Nobody gets cut for one quiet night, though. The bigger issue was the pecking order, and it wasn't subtle.
Seven Canucks forwards topped 15 minutes in that game. Cootes wasn't anywhere near that group, sitting behind Brendan Gallagher and Paul Cotter, who both played 12:03.
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And the results haven't bought anybody much goodwill. Vancouver has dropped three straight exhibition games heading into Saturday's home date with the Kraken.
The power play at least found a pulse. Linus Karlsson scored the lone goal with the man advantage, and Zeev Buium and Jonathan Lekkerimaki picked up the helpers.
Jake Debrusk fired seven shots and came away empty. That tells you the chances existed, and the finish didn't.
Then there's Elias Pettersson. The $11,600,000 man played 20:48 and didn't register a shot on goal.
Nikita Tolopilo took the loss after facing just 14 shots. Hard to pin that one on the crease.
Sending Cootes down is the right call, and it isn't close. Why burn a roster spot on a forward the staff wasn't ready to trust with real minutes?
Think of it like a restaurant pulling a new dish before opening night. The recipe stays, but nobody's serving it half-cooked.
In Abbotsford, he can eat minutes, get looks on special teams and make mistakes away from the Vancouver spotlight.
Manny Malhotra, hired June 1, now has a tighter forward group to sort through. Every cut clears a little more room for the players who survived.
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The Canucks open Tuesday in Edmonton and host the Oilers again Thursday. The forwards who beat out Cootes now have to prove it against the same club that just beat them.
Should the Canucks have kept Braeden Cootes over a veteran depth forward for opening night?
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