Grading the 2009 Flyers: Riley Cote

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It's hard to criticize a fighter, especially one who ended the season hurt, but Riley Cote didn't do much to help the team last year.  Obviously, he's not going to put up large offensive numbers, nor good defensive numbers, but people would be hard pressed to find something Riley Cote does well.  The best thing Riley does is not take too many minor penalties.  He took 12 compared to 22 majors and 4 misconducts.  Comparatively, Asham took 20, 17, and 2 while Dan Carcillo was called for 26, 22, and 6 between the Flyers and Coyotes combined.  Is that really a positive though?  He played a grand total of 262 minutes last year.  He was penalized 174.  And the positive is that he only took 12 minors?  It's a stretch, I know.

With all of that said, since the Flyers are up against the cap, the team could do worse.  Cote plays only 4 minutes a game, against awful competition (-0.14 qualcomp) and atrocious teammates (-0.50 qualteam).  While he doesn't produce a lot of offense, his GFON/60 was better than Andreas Nodl's.  No, that is not a typo.  In addition, his GAON/60 was better than Powe, Carcillo, Asham, and Nodl.  How much weight one puts on that stat is debatable though, since his GAON/60 was also better than Jeff Carter's and worse than Randy Jones'. 

As an enforcer, Cote isn't even particularly good at fighting.  Out of 22 fights last year, hockeyfights.com voters have his record at 4-15-3.  The year before, his record was 10-14.  This year, with the team having Asham, Carcillo, and Ian Laperriere, one has to wonder how long Cote will be a Flyer.  He's signed through 2010-11, but right now it appears as if he's only on the team because he's inexpensive.  Who knows, maybe he'll cement a role for himself this year.  Most likely though is that Cote is just an inexpensive option.