On Curtis Douglas’ long left arm are beautiful tattoos of his family’s dog, Emma, and the backyard tree he and his brothers used to climb back home in Oakville, Ont.
For a National Hockey League enforcer, these images aren’t exactly skull-and-crossbones or the grim reaper.
“No, it’s not a Douglas Fir,” the newest Vancouver Canuck smiled when asked about the tree. “It’s just the tree we would climb. It’s supposed to be some kind of evergreen but it would have been hard to get that one so (the tattoo artist) picked a tree that would look better.”
At six-foot-nine, Curtis is nearly tall enough to be a Douglas Fir. He ducked his head slightly, probably instinctively, as he passed through the doorway between the Canucks’ dressing room and players’ lounge after Tuesday’s practice at Rogers Arena.
The happy images on his arm are a reminder that kids don’t grow up playing hockey and dreaming of fighting. But Douglas, who turned 26 on Friday, the day after the Canucks claimed him on waivers from the Tampa Bay Lightning, has used fighting as an on-ramp for his professional career.
Drafted but not signed by the Dallas Stars in 2018, the forward logged 261 games in the American Hockey League for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Utah Mammoth organizations before the Lightning, after acquiring him on waivers this fall, gave him his first NHL game on Oct. 9.
Nine seconds into his first NHL shift, Douglas fought Ottawa Senators defenceman 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 registered four hits in 6:52 of ice time, including an early slobber-knocker on Ottawa defenceman Nikolas Matinpalo, but had only four shifts after Vancouver fell behind 1-0 halfway through the second period.
Still, his physical presence, something the Canucks have lacked since Nikita Zadorov left in free agency two summers ago, was evident.
“It is a real thing,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote, a fierce competitor when he played, said Tuesday. “It’s not only about fighting. I’ll give you an example: Brady Tkachuk usually is more involved after whistles, but last night he was quiet. That (having Douglas in the lineup) was part of it. And then you look at the forecheck; Douglas went in hard early, so you know when you’re going back for a puck . . . you know he’s out there. You might bail on it or you might do something sooner than you want to do it and your forward is not in position to get that puck. And we had more guys finishing hits last night. I mean, it was obvious, and it’s a thing.
“It matters. I think I’d like to see more – maybe not like a fighter – but hard (players). Especially when you’re going to go young, you want your players to feel comfortable there. It’s just human nature for other teams to go, ‘OK, there’s no one there (to answer to) so I’m going to take advantage of this rookie and run him down.’ When there’s accountability, guys aren’t going to do that, right? I saw last night, Curtis just went by their bench a couple times early. Our players liked that.”
In his final year of junior hockey, Douglas had 30 goals, 60 points and just 59 penalty minutes in 62 games for the Ontario Hockey League’s Windsor Spitfires.
It wasn’t until the Toronto Marlies signed him to a minor-league contract – after Douglas had committed to going to the University of New Brunswick – that he fully embraced an enforcer role, realizing that fighting could be a vital building block in his career.
In 29 games for the Lightning, he had eight fighting majors, one more than the Canucks team has amassed this season.
“This is my first year in the NHL, and it was always a dream of mine to play in the NHL,” he said. “And so I kind of told the (coaching staff) in Tampa and here that whatever they need me to do to stay and contribute and solidify myself as an NHL player, yeah, I’ll do it. If they need me to crawl through glass, I’ll do it for them.
“But I need to be able to not only fight, but also play. I mean, we’ve got a young team here, and you’ve got to make sure that there’s not guys that are going to go out and take liberties with our young guys and our skill guys. So that’s part of the benefit of me being out there. It’s a little more grit and a little more of them looking over their shoulders if they’re going to try and hit someone dirty or whatever. From that, it’s just building the other aspects of my game so I’m reliable out there for the coach, and he can know exactly what I’m going to bring every time I touch the ice.”
Douglas seems an excellent fit for the rebuilding Canucks. And Metro Vancouver looks like a good fit for him.
His mom, Angela, moved to suburban White Rock when she was young before returning to Australia with her family. And Douglas has two uncles in Coquitlam from his dad, Tom’s, side of the family.
“So every summer growing up, they’d come to Oakville or we’d come to B.C.,” he said of his relatives. “I have a bunch of cousins here, and then our neighbours growing up – their kids were a year or two older than me and my brothers – we were, like, best friends. They moved to B.C. and were at the game last night, so it’s fun to see them again.”
Douglas’ long road to the NHL makes him eligible for Group 6 unrestricted free agency this summer. The Canucks have 18 games left to assess him and build a relationship with the kind of player they need and can afford to carry as the team rebuilds.
“To have a guy like him . . . we haven’t had that since Zadorov, I think,” winger Nils Hoglander said. “So, I mean, it’s important for us. And now having such a young team, too, he can step in when he needs to. I think that’s important to have a guy like him. The other team can see him, too.”
“With the history of the team here,” Douglas said, “with Adam Foote and all the guys, it’s pretty special to come and play for them. I mean, I grew up watching Adam, so it’s pretty cool to meet him, and then meet the Sedins and all the history of this team. And then obviously there’s a lot of opportunity here.
“With a young team, someone like me might be able to help with making sure that all the guys feel safe out there and feel ready to play their games, and maybe even play a little harder than they would if I wasn’t out there. I’m just super excited to help the group any way I can.”