Cowan: Canadiens prospect Cooper Cleaves has game to match great name
One player who caught my eye at the Canadiens’ development camp last month in Brossard was Cooper Cleaves.
Apart from having a great name, Cleaves is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound defenceman — and he shoots right. He also skates well and can move the puck.
Canadiens management would like to add size to the roster and there’s also a lack of depth when it comes to right-shot defencemen. It’s not a coincidence that after taking 6-foot-3, 224-pound Russian winger Gleb Pugachyov in the first round of this year’s NHL Draft (26th overall), the Canadiens then selected right-shot defencemen with their next two picks. The Canadiens took 6-foot-2, 192-pound Tim Runtso in the second round (57th overall) and Cleaves in the third round (93rd overall).
Runtso and Cleaves are different types of defencemen.
“Timmy Runtso, obviously, more offensive, more flashy, I guess,” Nick Bobrov, the Canadiens’ co-director of amateur scouting said after the draft. “Cooper Cleaves more stay-at-home, mature, big, defends.”
Runtso had 11-33-44 totals in 68 games last season with the WHL’s Victoria Royals and will play this season at Miami University (Ohio). Cleaves had 4-6-10 totals in 30 games at Dartmouth College.
The Canadiens selected another defenceman with their fourth pick (No. 117 overall) at the draft, taking 6-foot, 174-pound Brayden Klimpke, who shoots left.
“Puck mover, elite skater,” Bobrov said about Klimpke, who had 4-43-47 totals in 68 games last season with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades. “Puck mover, elite skater. So we felt that those three at the right spots were the way to go. Again, you can never have enough Ds.”
The Canadiens invited Cleaves to their development camp last year after he had been passed over at the 2025 NHL Draft. He helped Dartmouth College win the ECAC championship for the first time in school history last season before the Canadiens selected the 20-year-old at this year’s draft.
“There’s a lot of really, really good hockey players in this organization,” Cleaves said at last month’s development camp. “There’s always some value being put on big, right-handed defencemen. I think they saw some value in that and I think that’s part of the reason why I’m here.”
Another reason might be that Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis knows what type of player and person Cleaves is because he came up through Connecticut’s Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey Association. That’s where St. Louis was coaching his three sons — Ryan, Lucas and Mason — before making the jump to the Canadiens.
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While St. Louis never coached Cleaves, he would have seen him play in the Mid-Fairfield Rangers program. Cleaves also played high school hockey on the same team as St. Louis’s middle son, Lucas, at Brunswick School in Connecticut. Cleaves’s older brother, Hank, played with St. Louis’s oldest son, Ryan, with the Mid-Fairfield Rangers. The Cleaves brothers are teammates at Dartmouth.
“I think it’s just run by really good people,” Cleaves said when asked about the success of the Mid-Fairfield program, which includes former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty and veteran NHL goalie Jonathan Quick among its former players. “There’s a pretty good crop of hockey players down in that area with great coaches, people like Ryan Haggerty, Gary Zegras, Chris Gragnano. There’s some really good people in that program who care a lot about hockey.”
Cleaves and Lucas St. Louis, a defenceman at Harvard University, remain close friends.
“He was pretty fired up,” Cleaves said when asked about Lucas’s reaction to the Canadiens drafting him. “He was one of my favourite teammates, and your teammates are going to be pretty happy for their teammates when they have success. I played against him a couple of times this year.”
Cleaves said Martin St. Louis has become “kind of a legend” in the Mid-Fairfield program and that it was cool watching him lead the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference final last season.
“It’s a really fun style to play or to watch,” Cleaves said about the Canadiens. “Especially their home games at the Bell Centre. You can feel that energy through the TV, so that playoff run was pretty special to watch.”
When asked to describe his game, Cleaves said: “I’d say I’m a two-way defenceman that picks his spots to be physical. I can pitch in offensively, move pucks up quickly and make the right reads.”
An NHL defenceman Cleaves looks up to is the Florida Panthers’ Aaron Ekblad.
“He’s someone that I don’t necessarily model my game after, but try to take things from,” Cleaves said. “He’s a 6-foot-4 (220-pound), right-handed defenceman. He’s hard to play against, he’s got a good stick. He pitches in offensively and he’s a winner. Those are obviously some good characteristics that I’d like to have in my game.”
Cleaves will return to Dartmouth for his sophomore season and is hoping to win the ECAC championship again and then go farther in the NCAA Tournament after losing 5-1 to Wisconsin in a regional semifinal last season.
“Just keep trying to develop my game,” he said. “Keep getting bigger, stronger, faster. I’m in a good spot at Dartmouth development-wise. Our coaches are unbelievable and we got everybody coming back, so we’re looking to make another run.”
Canadiens management will be watching.
