Watching this game made it clear how Cotton has put up so many points this season from the Lethbridge back end, but it also clearly showed where his game still needs work. He is a very dangerous player at the offensive blue line because of how accurately and how heavily he can move the puck, whether it’s by a pass or a shot. He puts a lot of strength and force down on his stick, and can easily put pucks where he wants them to go. Not only that, he also has high offensive hockey sense for a defenseman, allowing him to read the play in front of him and make the right decisions about whether to take the shot or move the puck to a teammate. His wrist shot, slapshop and one-timer are all scoring weapons. However, the rest of his game is a work in progress. He’s not overly quick on his feet and looks unbalanced at times. He also doesn’t put his big frame to much use, shying away from physical contact and not being very active with his reach. His defensive play is weak, as he both struggles to read the play quickly and doesn’t engage very hard in box-outs or tie-ups. Unsurprisingly, he wasn’t a trusted penalty killer for Lethbridge. You also have to wonder how much of his scoring success is directly because of how good Lethbridge’s entire top powerplay unit is. All that being said, though, Cotton has enough tools here to be an NHLer one day if a team can iron out his weaknesses.