Is Paul Cotter More Valuable to the Canucks Than a 1st-Round

The Vancouver Canucks probably didn't sign Paul Cotter thinking he'd become one of the early stories of their season. But four games in, he's got four goals and two assists. He's scored shorthanded, on the power play and at five-on-five. He's fast, he's physical, he forechecks, and he looks like the kind of player who makes everybody around him a little more uncomfortable.

And now I'm wondering if the Canucks have a problem. Not a bad problem. A really interesting one.

Cotter was the sort of player many people figured could become a trade candidate. He's 26, he's on a one-year contract, and if he keeps playing like this, his value at the trade deadline could be pretty attractive. A rebuilding team can always use another draft pick. But what if the Canucks shouldn't trade him?

Sometimes NHL teams find something they weren't looking for.

Cotter reminds me a little of Kiefer Sherwood, who became such a popular player in Vancouver because he brought something pretty simple to the rink every night. He worked.

Sherwood was fast, physical and relentless. He could score more than people expected. He became a fan favourite, and then the Canucks did what rebuilding teams often do. They turned a valuable player into an asset. That's not necessarily wrong.

But watching Cotter now, I'm wondering if there's another lesson here. Maybe sometimes the asset you need isn't the draft pick you can get for the player. Maybe it's the player.

Cotter isn't just scoring. He seems to be fitting into the team. He's playing about 15 minutes a night, moving between centre and wing, taking faceoffs and contributing in different situations. And there's something else I find interesting.

The Canucks have to decide what they're building.

He wasn't one of the players given a leadership-group designation this season. That's understandable. He's new. Leadership isn't something you hand somebody after four games. But sometimes a player starts demonstrating leadership before anybody puts a letter beside his name.

Maybe that's what we're watching. I don't want to get carried away with four games. Cotter isn't suddenly a 40-goal scorer. That shooting percentage is going to come down. Hockey has a funny way of bringing everybody back to earth. But the bigger question isn't whether he can keep scoring at this pace. It's whether he can become the kind of player a rebuilding team eventually decides it doesn't want to lose.

That's a different question. The Canucks have spent a lot of time collecting pieces for the future. At some point, they have to decide which of those pieces actually belong in that future.

Maybe Paul Cotter is one of them. And if he is, I'm not sure a first-round pick at the trade deadline would necessarily be an upgrade.