Canucks' Paul Cotter is 'passionate' about faceoffs
Paul Cotter came into Vancouver Canucks training camp as a winger, but he started the regular season as a centre.
Now he’s leading the Canucks in scoring.
Cotter scored the opening and closing goals in the Canucks’ season-opening win, then got the Canucks’ first goal in the chaotic 9-7 loss in their home opener. Add an assist on Brock Boeser’s goal in the same game, and Cotter has four points through the first two games of the season.
“I don’t want to [focus] too individually on myself, but it’s obviously nice when you pot a couple early in the year, and I logged a lot of minutes tonight, and I’m proud of that,” said Cotter after Thursday’s game. “It’s nice when you’re scoring and stuff; it gives you an extra pep in your step, but there’s a lot of improvement in my game that also needs to happen.”
Cotter mentioned a couple of areas where he wanted to get better, such as the penalty kill, but also a key skill for a centre: faceoffs.
‘It’s just a weird little thing that I’m passionate about’
When Filip Chytil got injured in his first preseason game, the Canucks could have turned to natural centre Aatu Räty, who has been one of the best faceoff men in the entire NHL over the past two seasons.
Instead, Canucks head coach Manny Malhotra moved Cotter to the middle, trusting that he could do the job.
“Honestly, it’s helped me quite a bit just being able to be versatile,” said Cotter. “You need a centreman, I can do it. You need a wing, I can do it.”
Through two games, at least, Cotter has been the Canucks’ best faceoff man. In an admittedly small sample size, Cotter has won 54.5 per cent of his draws to lead the team.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise. Cotter has been unusually effective in the faceoff circle for a winger. In the last two seasons with the New Jersey Devils, Cotter has taken 210 faceoffs and won 109 of them — a solid faceoff percentage of 51.9 per cent.
“Going into the NHL draft, that was actually my biggest strong suit: faceoffs,” said Cotter. “It’s just a weird little thing that I’m passionate about. Faceoffs are definitely up there for me, so I take them very seriously.”
Being “passionate” about faceoffs is a little bit unusual. Sure, NHL centres will focus on their craft and care about winning faceoffs — “passionate” is a strong word.
But Cotter cares deeply about the strategy and chess match of every draw.
“I love it. There were a couple draws against McDavid and Draisaitl that I knew exactly what they were gonna do,” said Cotter. “Now I’m, like, five steps ahead of even myself. I’m like, ‘Okay, if he does this, I’ll do that, and then this, and then that.'”
Again, Cotter has played pretty much all of his NHL career as a winger. The 132 faceoffs he took last season with the Devils were the most he’s ever taken in his career. For context, Brock Boeser — definitely a winger — took 136 faceoffs last season, four more than Cotter. It’s a little bit unusual for a winger to be thinking this much about faceoffs.
Still, the Canucks knew about Cotter’s ability to win faceoffs when they signed him.
“You can never have too many centres in your lineup, so his ability to play both positions helps out a lot in terms of creating different lines and different looks for us,” said head coach Manny Malhotra. “Even looking at some of his work last year — a faceoff-and-get-off type role at times — so knowing that he has the confidence to be able to go out there and take a faceoff helps.”
Cotter’s early offensive success bumped him up the lineup to a top-six role in Thursday’s game, and he continued to skate with top-six wingers Liam Ă–hgren and Brock Boeser at Friday’s practice.
“That’s what I’ve been praying for every night since I was a little guy, is to be a high-impact player in this league,” said Cotter. “Obviously, it was a good start, but I think when more opportunity comes, that’s the true test.
“That’s what I’ve been asking for throughout my career, is just more opportunity in different situations, and I believe that I will do pretty well with it once I get it.”