VANCOUVER – Curtis Douglas’ long left arm features a beautiful tattoo of the family dog, Emma, and the backyard tree he and his siblings used to navigate back to their home in Oakville, Ontario.
For National Hockey League officials, these images are not strictly speaking skull images or the Grim Reaper.
“No, it’s not a Douglas fir tree.” The newest Vancouver Canuck smiled when asked about the tree. “It’s just a tree that we’re going to climb. It’s supposed to be an evergreen tree, but I thought it would be hard to find, so (the tattoo artist) chose a tree that looked better.”
At 6 feet 9 inches, Curtis is almost as tall as a Douglas Fir. He bowed his head slightly, perhaps instinctively, as he passed through the doorway between the Canucks’ locker room and the players’ lounge after practice at Rogers Arena on Tuesday.
The happy image on his arm is a reminder that kids don’t grow up dreaming of playing hockey or fighting. But Douglas, who turned 26 on Friday, the day after the Canucks claimed him off waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning, used the fight as an on-ramp for his professional career.
The forward, who was drafted in 2018 but did not sign with the Dallas Stars, logged 261 games in the American Hockey League for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Utah Mammoth organizations prior to the Lightning and played his first NHL game on Oct. 9 after being granted waivers this fall.
Nine seconds into his first NHL shift, Douglas got into a fight with Ottawa Senators defenseman Kurtis MacDermid.
Interestingly, MacDermid was scratched by Ottawa coach Travis Green when Douglas made his Canucks debut in Monday’s 2-0 loss to the Senators. Douglas had four hits in 6:52 of ice time, including an early slover knocker to Ottawa defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo, but only had four shifts after Vancouver fell behind 1-0 midway through the second period.
Still, his physical presence was evident, something the Canucks have been lacking since Nikita Zadorov left in free agency two summers ago.
“This is real.” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said Tuesday. He was a fierce competitor during his playing days. “It’s not just about fighting. I’ll give you an example. Brady Tkachuk is usually more involved after the whistle, but he was quiet last night. That (Douglas being in the lineup) was part of it. And if you look at the projections, Douglas has been working hard early, so you know when it’s time to go back for the puck. . . . You know he’s there. You can bail or do something sooner than you want and your forward can get that puck. They’re out of position, and last night, more guys took hits.
“It’s important. I think I’d like to see more of it. Maybe not like a fighter, but hard (players). Especially when you’re young, I want them to feel comfortable there. It’s just human nature for other teams to go, ‘Okay, there’s no one there (to answer), so I’m going to use this rookie and take him down.’ Men won’t do that if you’re responsible. Right? I saw last night that Curtis went to the bench early a few times. “Our players liked it,” he said.
In his final year of junior hockey, Douglas appeared in 62 games for the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, scoring 30 goals, 60 points and only 59 penalty minutes.
It wasn’t until the Toronto Marlies signed him to a minor league contract that Douglas committed to the University of New Brunswick, where he fully embraced the role of enforcer and realized that fighting could be an important component of his career.
In 29 games for the Lightning, he has eight majors, one more than the Canucks have amassed this season.
“This is my first year in the NHL and it has always been a dream of mine to play in the NHL,” he said. “So I told the (coaching staff) in Tampa and here that I would do whatever they needed me to do to stay and contribute and solidify myself as an NHL player, and if they needed me to crawl through the glass, I would do that for them.
“But I have to be able to fight as well as make plays. I mean, we’ve got a young team here, and we’ve got to make sure there’s no player that goes out and frees our young guys and our technical guys. That’s one of the benefits of me being there, a little more grit and a little more looking over my shoulder when they’re trying to hit someone. From that kind of thing, it’s just making the dirty work. Because of the other aspects of my game, I can trust him as a coach and he can trust me when I’m on the ice.” Every time I reach it, I know exactly what I’m going to take.”
Douglas seems like a great fit to help rebuild the Canucks. And Metro Vancouver seems to be a good fit for him.
His mother Angela returned to Australia with her family after moving to suburban White Rock when he was young. And Douglas has two uncles from his father Tom’s side of the family in Coquitlam.
“So every summer the kids would come to Oakville and we would come to BC,” he said of his relatives. “I have a lot of cousins here, neighbors growing up. Their kids were a year or two older than me and my brothers. We were pretty much best friends. They moved to BC and were at the game last night, so it’s fun to see them again.”
Douglas’ long journey to the NHL makes him a Group 6 unrestricted free agent this summer. The Canucks have 18 games left to evaluate him, build relationships with the kind of players they need and cover as the team rebuilds.
“To have a player like him… I don’t think there’s been a player like him since Zadorov.” Winger Nils Hoglander said: “So, I mean, that’s important for us. And now that we have such a young team, we can step in when we need to. I think it’s important to have a guy like him. Other teams can look at him too.”
“Considering the history of the team here, it’s pretty special to come up with Adam Foote and all those guys and play for them,” Douglas said. “I mean, I grew up watching Adam, so it’s pretty cool to meet him and all the history of the Sedins and this team. And obviously there’s a lot of opportunity here.”
“With a young team, someone like me will be able to help make sure all the players feel safe and ready to play and maybe even play a little harder than they would without me. I’m very happy to help the group in any way I can.”
