Canucks: Ast. Coach Brett McLean talks line combos, Braeden Cootes making an impression, & more
Day two of camp as we continue things on here in Pentictton. But what’s just the vibe, the energy been like with this team so far? Well, we’ve been very happy with it, especially today. A lot of pace drills, asking the guys to skate and get up and down the sheet and everybody’s challenged each other and and uh skated at a very high pace. So, we’re we’re happy with the energy and compete so far. Is uh Peterson, Besser, and De Bruss to you? I know it’s day two way to go. What do you think? Yeah, obviously you got to temper your excitement on day two of training camp, but they look very good today. They scored a bunch of goals and we did some drills in the second session of practice that really was a bit of a advantage for the for the forwards and those guys definitely uh took that and they looked very very good out there today. Long term, why do you what do you see your that trio work together? Obviously, there’s there’s a lot to like with with those three uh three guys that have been very good players in the NHL for a long time, but also in training camp, we’re looking at different line combinations. So, um you know, we’re looking at that right now and they’ve been good through the first two days and and uh they’ll get a chance to play with different players here as we move forward as well. How much do you need from from Philip Beedle this year as a contributor, second line center? He’s obviously had some issues before, but what what do you how much do you need from this guy this year? Yeah, he’s going to have to be be good for us. There’s no question. But that’s that’s true for a lot of our centers that uh you know, we’re going to ask a lot of of that group and uh again, we’re we’re trying to really put in things here to him and to to others to to make sure that uh puts them in the best situation so that they can do the roles we’re going to ask them to do this season. said he plays better when his head’s not too filled with systems and having to think too much, which probably a lot of guys do. How do you work with a guy not to overload him because he’s so skilled, right? How do you let him be free but controlled at the same time? I think you’ll see in this training camp, we’ve also done quite a few drills where we’ve slowed things down to try to teach and that’s what we’re trying to do here in training camp really. We try to hit the ground running and teach the system. So for a player like that, get those locked in here in these first few days and then to your point, then he can just go out and play and play with his uh instincts. Sticking with that line, what have you seen out of Evander Kane on the last couple days? Yeah, he’s been good. He’s come in and and he’s really led for us. We really liked him today and there were some details we were asking out of the players in certain drills and he really did those details. So, we’ve been very happy with uh everything about his game and his attitude and he’s and his compete is always so high that um you know, he’s got that that big body, so he’s pushing some guys around today, which is something we want to see early in. Speaking of, you just said he led a lot today. Uh what can adding a guy who’s been to game seven of the Stanley Cup final two years in a row? What kind of leadership can that experience? Yeah, there’s no question that that’s uh that’s something that you only gain from being there and uh he’s been there two years in in a row now. So, that’s huge for our group and especially for our young guys some as I mentioned the compete that he showed today and the second day of training camp. You got to carry that on through the entire season and and you only realize that once you go through it like he has. And what about you? What have the last two days been like for you as a new assistant coach at this time? Yeah, it’s been great. Obviously, as a coaching staff, we’re trying to find our our rhythm. We’ve never worked uh together before and we’ve felt good uh about that. But for myself, it’s obviously just a huge honor to work for the Canucks and and to work for Adam and and uh yeah, I’ve been happy with it so far. Adam was saying that you were showing some pace out there yesterday. I was trying, but I never had much pace when I played. So, uh I I’ll keep trying to work on that. For so many of these guys, you know, it’s training camp. It’s just trying to find the rhythm and the routine again. But for Braden Coots, it’s a first time through this. I mean, have you had a chance to sort of keep an eye on him? What have you seen? And and how impressive was he? You know, I had a chance to talk to him during one of of the drills today and he was just excited, you know, as as you’d expect. But, uh, he also stood out today. He had a really good day and getting on pucks and he’s obviously smart and creative in in some of of the drills. So, he’s not just out here excited to be here. He’s here to make a impression and he’s done that through the first two days. It felt like practice today there was a lot of physicality, a lot more than yesterday, obviously. So, when you see those netfront battles or even just along the board battles, what does that tell you when players are that physical on day two? Well, that’s obviously good and we’re we’re pushing them to to to do that and that shows that they’re one committed to do it to what we’re asked them to do and two that they came ready to do that. So, uh a really good sign for us. Aside from that experience that Abander brings coming off a couple deep playoff runs, what are you hoping he can bring to this group in particular, especially in a top six role? Yeah. Well, obviously he’s got a physicality to his game that that uh we feel can definitely help our our team and will help any team and and so that’s that’s part of it. But, you know, he can definitely play a role for us in that leadership element and he brings a lot to our team that that uh that we feel is just going to help us and and uh again, we really like when he brings that attitude that he he’s brought here. Um and he can bring that that swagger to our team too that every team needs. If you want to be a good team, you got to have an edge to you. You got to have a belief to you and we think you can really help us with that. From a coaching standpoint, like how much more do you give the guys on day two than day one? Day one seemed like you were really trying to set a baseline. Like how much more do you throw at the roof on day two? Yeah, we threw a bit more systems wise, but tried to not do too much either. Um, you know, we want to make sure that our certain big big zones and the structure in those zones. Today we did a lot of neutral zones. So you feel like we got to start integrating some of those systems into it cuz we don’t have all that many practices obviously before we play preseason and even before the start of the season. There’s only so many. So we got to touch on certain things. So as we move forward here, we’ll we’ll continue to to try to build on those systems so that everybody’s on the same page as soon as we can. And Adam said yesterday he was toying with the idea of doing some special teams work. Are you guys any further ahead? Like do you think you’ll do any of that during camp or? Uh we’re going to meet as a coaching staff now and kind of get into that and we haven’t had a chance to uh to get into that today.
Vancouver Canucks assistant coach Brett McLean spoke to the media after day 2 of training camp and shared a fresh perspective on the teams’ forward group, and had plenty of praise for the team’s first round pick.
You can read more live updates in our day one live blog at canucksarmy.com here: https://canucksarmy.com/news/vancouver-canucks-training-camp-2025-day-one-live-blog