Paul Cotter hasn’t had the smoothest of rides in the NHL. He’s carved himself a role in both Vegas and New Jersey over the last four seasons, but hasn’t been able to grow out of a bottom-six role. However, when the Vancouver Canucks approached him with a contract this offseason, Cotter saw an opportunity to further develop his game, and that mattered most to him in order to show off his versatility.

Although, playing centre in only his second appearance in a Canucks uniform may not have been his first thought.

In the preseason finale, the Canucks found themselves in a difficult position down the middle of the ice.

Filip Chytil injured his shoulder in the first period of his preseason game against the Edmonton Oilers; Braeden Cootes had been sent down to the AHL; and Aatu Räty, having already played two preseason games, was also unavailable under the NHL’s veteran rule. That left the Canucks with Elias Pettersson, Marco Rossi, and Max Sasson as the only three natural centremen available on Saturday against the Seattle Kraken.

However, this position wasn’t new for Cotter. He shared that he grew up playing down the middle and that faceoffs were a major focus for him during the draft process. That has given him so much versatility now at the NHL level, which he considers to be one of his biggest assets:

“I’ve had my fair share throughout the years,” Cotter admitted to Daily Faceoff Vancouver. “I grew up a centerman my whole life until we were pretty deep in Vegas, so I learned to be a wing pretty quickly. But faceoffs have always been a strong suit, like I said. Even last year, there were times where I go out with [Jack] Hughes and Bratt, take the faceoff, and get off. So, faceoffs are normal. I think the way that the game is played now, whoever’s in the area first plays that position. So, had my fair share of playing centre low in the D-zone, and then obviously the rest of it is pretty positionless in terms of left wing, right wing, centre. So it’s a pretty easy transition.”

Heading into a rebuild, there wasn’t much for the Canucks to offer free agents in terms of winning. However, that was never what enticed Cotter about Vancouver. He was more interested in the opportunity the Canucks could offer him.

Throughout his five-year NHL career, Cotter has never averaged more than 13:05 minutes per game, playing a depth role with not much special teams time. But in Vancouver, Cotter sees potential in allowing him to develop into such roles.

“It’s just growing into stuff; being able to have the ability to grow is the biggest thing that I’m looking for,” Cotter began. “You know, I don’t need to be on power play one, line one centre, and do everything from day one, but that’s something that I’m chasing, and it’s something that everyone’s chasing in this room: more ice time, more trust.

“I think for me I haven’t necessarily gotten to that level where I’m put in those situations consistently. Obviously, there’s times where I’ve been in there in Vegas and New Jersey, but it’s not a consistent opportunity that I’ve been given.

“Here, there’s opportunity for me to grow; power play, penalty kill – got some reps the past couple of games, which has been good – little things, four-on-four, playing first line, second line. It’s more so just minutes. I mean, the hard minutes, right? Goalies pulled, you want to be out there to defend. On the opposing side, if we need a goal, you want to be one of the guys that’s going to be out there. So, those are the things that I’m gunning for that, you know, I don’t think that I’ve showed this league necessarily all the things that I can do. And here, I think I have the ability to show.”

Coming into Vancouver, many questioned Cotter’s defensive ability. He has underwhelming underlying numbers at 5v5 throughout his five-year NHL career, finishing on the wrong side of 50% in Corsi For Percentage,  Goals For Percentage, and Expected Goals For Percentage in four of those five years at even strength.

But with the Canucks, Cotter sees an opportunity for him to grow the defensive side of his game. And head coach Manny Malhotra gave him that chance to prove he could play a defensive role on this team, giving Cotter penalty kill time in both of his preseason games – and he did well.

So, does Cotter feel as though he’s gotten a bad rap for his defensive play at this point in his career?

“I mean, it’s hockey,” Cotter replied. “I think everybody’s got stuff to work on. So I think that’s something that, when I was a young player, was probably my biggest point of weakness, just because I wanted offence, offence, offence, and then the higher you go, the more you realize one critical mistake can lead to a lot differently.

“You know, I would always think, like, obviously I’m not making a turnover in front of the net, but it’s little things when you’re on the blueline, instead of just chipping it in, instead of making a play and then it goes down the other way for 30 seconds, and then it goes in. Those are the things that I think, as you play, any player will clean up once you start to realize how the game works and the things that you can try, when to try them, and when you can’t.

“So, I think that’s something that I’ve cleaned up very well in my game. And then another asset defensively would be faceoffs. I think that I’ve done a really good job of that. So, yeah, obviously there’s going to be critics. They’ve got to pick at something. But I think I’ve done a pretty good job at both ends so far. So I continue to look forward to doing that.”

As a new player in the Canucks locker room, Cotter avoided all of the negative noise that clouded this team for the past few seasons. That’s to his benefit as he brings a new, fresh perspective on the locker room dynamic, rather than those who have been tainted by past struggles – even if it’s still only early in the year.

While Cotter acknowledged the group has a wide range of ages, he also described the locker room as egoless, a word very important when dealing with a rebuilding group.

“Yeah, it’s awesome!” Cotter said passionately when asked about the locker room vibe. “I think that we have such a good group. I think that if you ask any person in the NHL, they’re going to say the same thing, ‘Oh, you know, we have a great group,’ but this is a really great group. Like, I can’t stress it enough.

“I’ve talked about it a couple of times just with the older guys. It’s very egoless. That’s probably the best way to put it, which is very, very, very rare. The older guys want to help. They want to lead. They want to show they’re pretty much equals. Then the young guys obviously have a lot of talent and skill, and they’re not expecting anything or doing things that they probably shouldn’t. You know, they’re following in line and want to be led, and are hungry. And then there’s kind of guys, tweeners in the middle, like myself, that are able to help on both ends and be there for whatever guys need. So awesome group. Like I said, very egoless. And then with that on top of with how Manny is pretty intense and on top of things very neat and tidy. I mean, I think it’s going to be really good.”

Lastly, and this was a question that needed to be asked: his stick tape. As one can see in the featured image on this article, Cotter has a unique tape job on his stick, one that sees his tape go about three-quarters down the shaft of his stick.

So, is it for style? Is it for extra grip? What is it?

“I think it would be really good style in roller hockey,” Cotter laughed. “Yeah, she’s an ugly stick, that’s for sure. I don’t know. I just, I don’t really like change too much. So I just kind of dealt with it growing up. I think that’s the way that my dad taped my stick when I first had it, so I had it throughout the years. And actually, funny enough, Chandler Stephenson, when we were in Vegas together, told me he’d give me a pretty large sum if I got rid of it. I tried it, and probably 30 seconds into the practice, I don’t know if it was the peripherals not being able to see or something, but I couldn’t do it. So it’s going to stay like that forever, I think. But yeah, it’s definitely not for style.”

Cotter is set to make his Canucks debut tonight in Edmonton. According to line rushes, he will slot in on the fourth line with Räty and Brendan Gallagher. If opportunity is what Cotter is looking for in Vancouver, we will only see him grow from this role as the season goes on – and don’t expect him to change his stick tape throughout the year.