Paul Cotter
Age: 26 Position: Forward
Statistics: nine goals, six assists, 15 points (79 games)
Contract: Restricted free agent (RFA)
Grade: D-
2025-26 Review
Paul Cotter has established himself as a strong finisher and a lethal shootout presence over his five-year NHL career. However, from a purely impacts standpoint, he is trending in the wrong direction, especially this past season.
According to Evolving Hockey’s on-ice goal above replacement (GAR) metrics, Cotter ranked in the league’s 17th percentile overall (14th offensively, 26th defensively). Additionally, his more traditional analytics were very poor as well.
Here is how Cotter ranked in some key five-on-five metrics among 27 Devils to play at least 60 minutes:
- Corsi-for percentage (CF%): 22nd
- Expected goals-for percentage (xGF%): 22nd
- Scoring chance-for percentage (SCF%): 24th
- High-danger Corsi-for percentage (HDCF%): 25th
Further, if you limit the data sample to a minimum of 65 games played, Cotter’s goals-for percentage ranks dead last in the entire NHL.
On the flip side, Cotter did occasionally provide a nice scoring punch in the bottom of the Devils’ lineup. He scored nine goals, albeit a decrease from his 16 goal output from last season. He also shot an above average 14.8%, which is something the Devils lacked sorely elsewhere. No to mention, he converted on 40% of his shootout attempts (2-for-5) helping New Jersey to rare shootout success. Cotter also was again near the top of Devils hit leaders with 192 trailing only Brenden Dillon.
Unfortunately, the very poor impacts outweigh the scoring touch, especially since that area of Cotter’s game, despite a decrease in ice time (13:05 to 10:41) this season, took a hit as well.
2026-27 Outlook
Cotter is without a contract currently for 2026-27. He is a restricted free agent so the Devils own his rights still. Any deal with Cotter would likely come very cheap as he was only making $775,000 and did not do anything this past season that would warrant a large raise.
With new general manager Sunny Mehta coming in, and his reliance on analytics, it would not be surprising in the slightest if New Jersey ships out the rights to Paul Cotter in a minor trade. It would also behoove the Devils to rebuild some of the bottom-six given how that was a large area of struggle for the team.
Note, all above statistics are courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and Evolving Hockey.