A 15-year-old Braeden Cootes watched, with the rest of the country, the last time Team Canada won gold at the world juniors.
He remembered fondly the way Joshua Roy slipped a cross-seam pass to Dylan Guenther, who then buried it for the tournament-winning goal in overtime against Czechia in front of a sold-out crowd in Halifax back in 2023.
“I thought that was so cool,” Cootes recalled in an interview to Sportsnet. “Just seeing the crowd, and in Canada. … That’s just Canadian hockey in a nutshell right there.
“It was pretty special to watch.”
Made even more special for the young, then-rookie of the Seattle Thunderbirds was watching his teammates skate with one of the most dominant Canadian teams assembled in years.
"That was my first time actually knowing guys in the tournament," the 2025 15th-overall pick explained. "That was a special group."
Now 18 years old, the Sherwood Park, Alta., native has a chance to create his own memories as one of 27 invitees to Canada’s 2026 world junior training camp, which begins Saturday in Niagara Falls, Ont.
This is Cootes’ first training-camp invite and, if he remains on the roster come Dec. 23, it will be his first time suiting up for the holiday classic.
“I’m obviously excited, it’s a huge honour,” Cootes said. “Any time you get the chance to wear the maple leaf, especially for the world juniors for the first time… You watch it every Christmas. It’s a pretty special tournament.”
He and 26 other young standouts are preparing for the 2026 go-around with one goal in mind: reclaim their spot as champions.
The gold — or any medal, really — has been elusive for Canada in the past two years. Despite having loads of first-rounders on their roster, the red-and-white bowed out in the quarterfinals in both 2024 and 2025.
For Cootes, the early losses were made much more painful by what followed: watching their longtime rivals take a victory lap. Twice.
“The last two years watching has been tough because being Canadian, you obviously want Canada to win, and it’s been annoying seeing the U.S. win twice now,” the now-captain of the Thunderbirds laughed. “So that’s extra motivation.”
It's hard not to be motivated — and optimistic — when looking at the roster Canada has assembled. Alongside the cast of first- and second-rounders, there are some notable draft-eligible players on the list and, for the fourth year in a row, it's looking like Canada will dress the presumptive first-overall pick.
Or, both of them. Depending who you ask.
Forward Gavin McKenna is finding his footing with Penn State after departing from the CHL, with four goals and 18 points in 16 games while Keaton Verhoeff has four goals and 11 points in 16 games as a defenceman for the University of North Dakota.
But it's not just the top-end talent, Cootes believes, that's going to take them over the top. It's that they've done it before — and done it to gold-medal pedigree at this year's under-18 world junior championship.
"All of us have, like, played together," he explained. "And we've had success too, playing together. The '07s and I know the '06s with Hlinka and the U-18, so it's a good group. We gel really well and I'm really excited."
Canada also has big-league experience in its favour, with a list of players like Michael Misa, Zayne Parekh and Harrison Brunicke who have seen NHL ice this season — a list that happens to include Cootes.
Selected mid-way through the first round last June, Cootes reported for his very first training camp and blew the socks off the Vancouver Canucks, earning a roster spot on opening night to become the first 18-year-old to make the Canucks since 1990.
In a city that has so little optimism these days, Cootes' story in Vancouver was a good one, but his three NHL games and four pre-season games were more than just feel-good moments for a young player; it was valuable experience that he not only took back to Seattle in October, but that he aims to take into the world juniors.
"They've got a lot of good players on that team that have done a lot of things around the league. Just getting to watch them, talk to them, play on a line with them and (seeing) all the things they do...
"Using that as confidence, too," Cootes added. "Knowing I played with those guys and I was able to hang with them. Bringing that confidence into the camp and hopefully to the tournament."
NHL experience or not, Cootes understands his spot on the world juniors roster isn't guaranteed. Team Canada brass is aiming to trim down to the 24-man roster ahead of its final exhibition game on Dec. 23, so regardless of the plethora of talent present in camp, some tough decisions will be made.
But the centreman hopes that his team-first attitude and versatility will earn him his spot.
"If (they) want me to score goals or be a cheerleader or be on the penalty kill, power play... I’ll do anything to win,” Cootes emphasized. “Whatever they want me to do, I’ll do to the best of my ability.”
To achieve that, Canada will almost inevitably have to go through the U.S. — a tall task made much taller given the tournament is taking place on their home turf. There's desire for revenge, too, after watching the U.S. win it all in Ottawa last January.
Would that game be easy to get up for?
"Oh 100 per cent. I mean, if you can't get up for the world juniors for a game against the U.S., in the U.S., then I don't think you should really be playing hockey," Cootes laughed.
"That's what you dream of," he continued. "They did that to us last year in Ottawa, so we get the privilege to have the chance to do that this year. It's been tough losing. I mean, nobody wants to lose for a competitive country and, you know, we're looking forward to changing that this year."
Canada plays its first game Dec. 26 against Czechia.
