Veteran defenseman has joined his new Canucks teammates on the ice at UBC
Ian Cole has arrived in Vancouver and has joined the Canucks skating group at UBC ahead of training camp.
The veteran defenseman signed a one-year contract on July 1st and will be looked to bolster the team's blueline and help prop up the worst penalty killing unit in the National Hockey League last season.
Cole met with a small group of Vancouver media following Tuesday's on-ice session and addressed a number of topics.
On playing for Rick Tocchet who was an assistant coach in Pittsburgh when Cole played there winning a pair of Stanley Cups in 2016 & 2017:
"Obviously you can't argue with his resume as a player and a coach. He has a very similar resume. He's intense. He's very detailed. He expects you to sacrifice and play and the level he sacrificed and played at. From a guy with that sort of background and pedigree it's really tough to make the argument to not step up to that standard, right? On top of that he's very detailed, he knows the game. All those things. I think it'll be a treat to play for him and it's something I'm very excited for."
On joining a Canucks team that was dead last in the NHL on the penalty kill last season and has struggled in that area of the game for a couple of seasons now:
"I'm aware of it. It's one of those things. It's not easy to do. Obviously, you're down a man and you're playing against the other team's five best players. So it's not an easy thing to do. Your reads have to be extremely, extremely good. They need to be very clean. The execution basically needs to be perfect and if it's not, you get scored on. The reads, the execution, those things are what we're going to have to focus on. Really fine tune those and make sure that those reads off each other as players are second nature."
On originally asking for uniform number 28 then shifting quickly to 82 when he learned that 28 had not been worn in Vancouver since Luc Bourdon's tragic passing in 2009:
"You know 28 is a number I've worn since I was basically 12-years-old. For the past 22 years now. I was asked what number I wanted, I said number 28 and they said great, no problem, here you go. Obviously everything came out (about Bourdon). It was pretty easy decision to make. At the end of the day, it's just a number on your back. What's the old adage? You play for the crest on the front and not the name or -- in this case -- the number on the back. It really doesn't matter. You could give me any number from 1 to 98. Can't get 99. Doesn't really matter to me. Just happy to be here and excited to be a part of the team."
On a potential pairing with new captain Quinn Hughes:
"Quinn is a special player. Everybody knows that. You see him out here. The way he can skate is unbelievable. What he creates is unbelievable. In a situation like that, you want to be a supporting player for him and let him do his thing. You want to make his job as easy as you can. You want to open up his ability to create and do that. If that means, being a little bit more passive, maybe just kind of sit back and play centre field and let him do his thing, maybe that's the case. If you've got to go corner to corner and play a little defense and let him jump into the play then that's what you do. You want to make his job as possible and the best thing for the team is to let him create and be creative. If that happens -- again if, who knows what it's going to be we'll leave that up to the coaches -- I think you let him do his thing."