Heading into the 2017-18 season, Jason Cotton had Oct. 6 circled on his calendar.
That’s the night Cotton would first take the ice for Sacred Heart after transferring from Northeastern. The 6-foot-3, 190-pound forward sat out the previous season due to NCAA transfer rules, so it was a long wait to play in a meaningful game.
The real kicker? Cotton transferred from Northeastern and would face the Huskies in his first game back. Needless to say, that motivation spurred on Cotton during his year off.
“Anytime I was in the gym, I would be dreaming about the first game, the first shift. I’d dream about scoring goals,” Cotton said. “It was more about whenever you’re tired or fatigued, you don’t feel like getting up for practice, you just think of Northeastern and you think, ‘Hey, you’re going to get your shot against them.’ ”
Though Sacred Heart lost both games and was outscored 14-3 in the weekend series, Cotton took it as a learning moment and has turned out to be a key player for the Pioneers. Now a redshirt junior, Cotton played in all 39 games last season, registering 12 goals and nine assists. He has 12 points through 26 games this winter.
Sacred Heart head coach C.J. Marottolo is thrilled to have someone like Cotton on the roster, referring to the forward as a “godsend.”
“Just how he goes about his business, how he works. He works on his game all the time after practice and before practice,” said Marottolo (North Haven, Conn.). “He’s a great teammate. We’re ecstatic that he’s here at Sacred Heart.”
Cotton was born and raised in Parker, Texas, a small town 30 minutes northeast of Dallas. He didn’t start playing hockey until he was 4, around the same time the Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999.
Cotton says the Stars moving from Minnesota to Dallas in 1993 really created a hockey community, and the team’s championship six years later helped the game grow even more down south.
“Dallas is really a hotbed for hockey,” Cotton said. “There’s so many players coming out of the Dallas and Fort Worth area who are Division 1 playing in professional hockey leagues. It’s really cool to see so many good players coming out of where you grew up. Being a part of that culture evolving in the city is really fun to watch.”
One of Jason’s neighbors originally got him and his two brothers into hockey. Ryan, the oldest, played in juniors for a few years. David, the youngest, is a junior at Boston College and having a tremendous season. A Carolina Hurricanes draft pick, David has 24 points for the Eagles this year.
Jason says playing alongside his brothers growing up and having someone who understood the grind and commitment to hockey made things easier on him.
“When you have brothers, you always have that compete in you and you want to push each other, whether that’s playing roller hockey at a local tournament or just going to watch your brothers play a triple-A game,” Cotton said. “I think we’ve really leaned on each other throughout the years to try and get the best out of each other. We all know our potential, where we can go.”
Cotton committed to Northeastern in 2012, playing three seasons at the junior level before joining the Huskies for the 2015-16 season. He was one of seven freshmen on the roster.
In Northeastern’s lone exhibition game against Simon Fraser, Cotton netted a hat trick, suggesting he had a bright future ahead of him on Huntington Avenue. But the forward played just eight games in the first half of the year as the Huskies sputtered to a 3-12-2 record before Christmas.
With a lack of playing opportunity on a struggling team, Cotton decided to use his remaining junior eligibility and leave Northeastern. He finished that season with the Youngstown Phantoms of the United States Hockey League, while the Huskies caught fire and ended up winning the Hockey East championship.
There’s certainly no bad blood between Cotton and Northeastern. Looking back on it, the forward simply wanted to get playing time in order to improve his game.
“When you come in as a freshman, you’re not given all the opportunities. You’re going to have to earn your stripes,” Cotton said. “At the same time, when you come into college, the only way to get better is to play and be thrown into opportunities where you can grow and learn from your mistakes. Northeastern wasn’t a good fit for me in that way.”
Marottolo knew about Cotton before he committed to Northeastern and his staff recruited the freshman hard after the 2016 season. Cotton gave his commitment to SHU in May of that year.
The Pioneers’ offense focuses on puck possession, and Cotton’s ability to protect the puck has made him a perfect fit at Sacred Heart. He skates in almost every scenario as a result.
“We want to play a puck-possession game, and he’s such a great skater,” Marottolo said. “He uses his reach to his advantage. He has the puck on his stick a lot during the game. His skill-set fits into how we want to play, and he’s great defensively because of his reach. He’s just an all-around player for us.”
At 6-foot-3, Cotton is the biggest forward on the team. As he’s gotten older, he’s learned how to use his body properly at the collegiate level.
“Not in the sense of just going to cream guys in the corner and trying to throw big hits; just more of using your body down low, protecting the puck, buying yourself an extra second or two of time to make a play,” Cotton said. “When you’re younger, you’re just trying to be like Patrick Kane and trying to make moves through the triangle. As you get to the higher levels, you realize that doesn’t work. You have to use your body and protect the puck. That’s the way you’re going to do it.”
Of course, it took a while for Cotton to contribute on the ice, as he had to sit out the entire season. It’s hard for any young man to be barred from playing the game he loves, but Cotton used the time to examine how his teammates played and using it to improve.
“I took a step back and just watched,” Cotton said. “It’s rare where you can, in the middle of your career, just do that. It was beneficial for me just because you watch so many games, you see what works for some players and what doesn’t. You can change your game around to that.”
Marottolo added, “To his credit, he didn’t take a practice off. Right from the get-go his mindset was, ‘I’m going to use this year to get better as a player,’ and he did. Sometimes you look down that tunnel, it’s a long way away before you’re actually in a game. Every day he worked on his game to get better. It obviously helped him to hit the ground running when his time was there to start playing.”
Cotton didn’t tally a point in his first six games with the Pioneers, but he finished sixth on the team in points and had four power-play goals. He’s currently sixth in points again this season, providing consistency and experience to a young team.
He has a lot more hockey games in front of him — something he wouldn’t have had at Northeastern. Cotton says Sacred Heart has been an excellent fit so far, and his coaching staff agrees.
“We compete every day. The coaches demand everything out of you every day in practice,” Cotton said. “I’ve been giving the opportunities to play here and be a guy and help my team win. It’s been really great so far.”
