Cole Perfetti never had a biological brother. But for as long as he can remember, he’s always had billet brothers.
He remembers the day, a couple of months before his 6th birthday, when a 16-year-old Andy Andreoff moved into his house. Andreoff was joining the Oshawa Generals for the back half of the 2007-08 season, his first in the league, and the Perfettis, based out of nearby Whitby, Ont., had decided they’d house players for the local OHL club.
In the five seasons that followed, Perfetti watched as his big billet brother became one of the Generals’ best players and a third-round pick of the Los Angeles Kings. Not long after Andreoff moved in, Generals winger Jeff Brown followed. Then came Cole Cassels, a would-be third-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks.
Today, more than a decade after Andreoff joined his family, Perfetti is poised to surpass his first big brother. He’s the Saginaw Spirit’s superstar and a potential top-five pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. And though he didn’t realize it at the time, Perfetti’s childhood prepared him for everything that has come — and all that will follow.
From age 6 to 11, Andreoff was Perfetti’s idol.
Andreoff went out of his way to include Perfetti in everything he did, asking him daily if he wanted to play mini sticks, video games or basketball.
“That made me feel special and like a rock star in a way, because an OHLer was asking me to hang out. It was unreal for me. It was unbelievable,” Perfetti said. “I looked up to him and I thought he was the greatest thing. I wanted to be like him.”
Perfetti doesn’t know exactly when he realized he was following in Andreoff’s footsteps, but he figures it was at one of the annual world selects invitational tournaments. By then, Perfetti was already a minor hockey star of his own, playing a year above his age group for the local Whitby Wildcats. But the invitational exposed him to players from Russia, Finland and Sweden, and when he still led the tournament in scoring he knew he could grow up to be just like Andreoff.
“When he was in his overage year and I was 11 and hockey started to become a little more serious for me, I started paying attention to what he did and how he carried himself and there’s a lot to learn from that,” Perfetti said.
By his first of two years of minor midget AAA hockey, Perfetti had decided he was going to do whatever it took to make a career out of it. It didn’t take everyone else quite as long to realize Perfetti was special, though.
Perfetti was one of the first players former NHL player and AHL coach Cam Stewart noticed when he started his career as an agent with KO Sports. Before Perfetti was selected in the OHL draft, Stewart saw a kid who conducted himself like a junior hockey player — and worked at his craft like one too.
“Those things were ingrained in him. The crazy part of our business and the part I wish would change is how early we have to talk to these young men. And just talking to Cole, he’s very comfortable in a public situation, let’s just put it that way,” Stewart said with a laugh. “Word was on the street.”
It didn’t take long for Andreoff to notice his little brother had it, either.
“The thing with Cole is that even from 6 to 11, he was such a smart kid. When he would come to my games, he would know every little stat, all the rules, exactly what was going on.” Andreoff said. “It was impressive.”
Around the time Andreoff moved in, Perfetti had also been introduced to Anthony Cornacchia, a local skills coach who continues to work with him today. Cornacchia said he knew very early on that Perfetti was different. In his OHL draft year, Perfetti posted 124 points in 61 games with the Vaughan Kings before being named to the year-end OHL Cup’s all-star team. But when Perfetti was selected fifth overall in the 2018 OHL draft, Cornacchia believed he should’ve gone even higher.
He knew that Perfetti wasn’t just the most talented player on the ice, but that he’d also learned, from a young age, how to work hard. In the offseason, Perfetti would always text Cornacchia to find out the start times, so that he could be the first one to the rink.
“He has studied the game. And that’s reflective in the type of game he plays,” Cornacchia said. “He’s able to slow the game down and just control the game. Watching him play minor hockey and all the doubt and the people who’ve suggested ‘he’s this’ or ‘he’s that’ and yet I’ve never seen him get hit or lose pucks. He just makes everyone around him better and that translates to the pro game, the ability to recognize what your teammates are doing and where they’re going.”
While Andreoff billeted with him, Perfetti also got to know one of his Generals teammates, Nick Quinn. When Quinn’s OHL career ended he helped launch Power Edge Pro, a skills training service that now boasts many of the world’s best as clients, including Connor McDavid and John Tavares. Perfetti has been one of his students for the past five years.
After watching Perfetti go crossbar and in on older goalies in his very first PEP session, Quinn remembers thinking “Who the hell is this kid?”
In groups with hockey’s best young players, from 2019 first overall pick Jack Hughes to fellow top 2020 prospects like Quinton Byfield and Jamie Drysdale — or future sensation Shane Wright — there were times when Perfetti could make plays in traffic or at top speed that his peers couldn’t.
“He was just that good. He’s a total new age player. He’s going to be a dominant player,” Quinn said. “And he’s not fazed by much. He’s going to excel at the next level because pressure doesn’t seem to get to him. Most players going into their draft year, they tighten up, and he’s just Mr. Cool. It doesn’t matter what the moment is.”
Off the ice, Quinn also saw shades of his old teammate in Perfetti.
“Andy is just a genuinely great guy, a leader, and living with Cole, I bet he made a real big difference. Andy was first to the rink and last to go home when I played with him. That can wear off on a kid like Cole,” Quinn said. “Cole’s just a humble kid and you don’t always get that in the hockey world.”
Perfetti first blew away Spirit head coach Chris Lazary when he coached against the 10-year-old version of his future star in a spring tournament. When Perfetti arrived in Saginaw for his first development camp, the 16-year-old version quickly reminded his new coach why.
“About one shift in we could tell he was different and we were lucky to get him fifth overall,” Lazary said. “The second you got your hands on him you just realized he was world class and that he was already so far ahead of his peers and developed with his brain. It was like having a pro hockey player’s intelligence in a junior game.”
At that same development camp, general manager Dave Drinkill was impressed by something else about Perfetti: his maturity and the way he spoke to adults. Perfetti knew where he wanted to go and the kind of person he wanted to be along the way, something Drinkill said many prospects of his notoriety lack.
“He’s an unbelievable human being first and foremost,” Drinkill said. “He’s very well-spoken, smart in the classroom, he’s a mid-to-high 90s student, he manages his time, and yet he can be one of the guys in the room. When he goes for dinner, the guys want to follow. But he doesn’t act like he’s better than anybody else ever.”
That first season, veteran players quickly began approaching Lazary to ask if they could be Perfetti’s linemate, having quickly realized their youngest players was also their best. When Perfetti followed that development camp with a 74-point rookie season to lead the Spirit — and all of the OHL under-17 players — in scoring, nobody was surprised.
By the end of the 2018-19 season, Lazary believed Perfetti would go first or second overall if they did the OHL draft over.
And when Perfetti finished second in the CHL in scoring this year, his NHL draft year, with 111 points in 61 games, nobody was surprised by that, either. Just like they weren’t surprised when he scored five goals — two in regulation and three more in the shootout — in Canada’s semifinal win over Team Sweden at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, which he led in scoring with 12 points in five games.
Lazary says Perfetti is the OHL’s best player off the rush. He says there isn’t another player in junior hockey who scans zones to identify how opposing defence might try to squeeze him as well as Perfetti does, either.
“Whatever you give him, he just makes his decision off of that. I’ve probably never coached a better player in all my years who understands where guys are around him and how to break down coverage,” Lazary said. “Then you add his natural ability to make a pass and play through traffic and it’s special.”
There were times in video sessions this year where Lazary admits that Perfetti was three steps ahead of him. In one session in particular, when Lazary opened up the floor to let Perfetti walk him through his shifts, he marvelled at how far ahead Perfetti was seeing.
“When he comes over our blue line, he already knows what’s going to hit him at their blue line. It’s insane to see a player of that mental capacity. You learn a lot as a coach, I’ll tell you that,” Lazary said.
Despite a record-breaking season in Saginaw, questions from outsiders of size and speed have followed Perfetti.
When the outbreak of COVID-19 ended Perfetti’s draft year early, NHL Central Scouting had him ranked fifth among North American skaters. But those who know the now 18-year-old and his game best, believe he doesn’t get the respect he deserves.
“I think there are some teams between one to five that if they don’t pick him they’re going to be disappointed,” Quinn said.
When Quinn watches Perfetti play, he doesn’t see someone who is defined by being 5-foot-10.
“You look at the game now and you don’t have to be big to play and Cole’s not small by any means. The next level isn’t going to intimidate him at all,” Quinn said. “The less space there is the better he seems to play and that’s where the NHL seems to be going.”
Lazary believes that speed and strength disappear once you’re in the offensive zone.
“It does not matter if you’re faster. It matters how you think and process and break teams down and cut laterally. And I don’t think there’s a better player in this draft than Cole Perfetti at doing that. I know I’m his coach but I think he’s the best player in this draft because of that,” Lazary said.
“I try to picture him at 24 or 25 with his skill set as he gets stronger, like who will be a better player than Cole Perfetti? To me, it’s nobody.”
In the days after cancellation, Perfetti called Cornacchia to ask if he had a hockey net he could borrow so that he could shoot pucks at home. He spends an hour and a half a day working out at home too. And though he hasn’t been on the ice since March 11, the day before the season was first paused, Perfetti feels like he has made real progress in the weeks since.
“Having the season end so quickly sucks but it’s also a blessing in disguise for myself because one thing that I need to do this summer if I want to make the jump is get stronger,” Perfetti said. “With the way the game is going you don’t have to be the biggest, you have to be smart and skilled. I can think at the NHL level. Now I just need to get the speed and strength of the NHL level.”
Though Drinkill wants his best player back in Saginaw next season, he’s not convinced that will happen. He, too, thinks Perfetti has a good chance at making the jump.
“When he gets to the NHL level, a lot of guys are going to think like him,” Drinkill said. “He could start excelling because players will get to spots they normally don’t get to for him … It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he stuck.”
When he’s not training, Perfetti has dedicated much of his offseason to Fett’s Friends, a foundation he started with the Spirit.
After the season ended, Perfetti approached Spirits staff and ownership about expanding the foundation, which has worked closely with the local hospital, the Covenant Medical Center, to begin supporting area doctors and nurses directly. He has found ways to raise new money and contributed from his own pocket to buy meals for workers on the frontline of this health crisis.
“And he has literally gone about that himself quietly,” Lazary said. “He just gets it. Especially as an elite player, he understands there’s a responsibility to give back and to make others around you feel important.”
As part of Perfetti’s new efforts, Fett’s Friends has delivered pizza and Tim Hortons to the hospital in recent weeks. He says it’s the least he can do and points to everything he has learned about himself through his time spent visiting the hospital, particularly its paediatric ward.
“The front-line health care workers especially are getting worked to starvation and pushed to the limit and it’s not fair to them. We’re sitting at home, relaxing and watching TV while they’re putting their families lives and their lives on the line to work to exhaustion to save others,” Perfetti said. “I want to stay connected to the community and make a difference in Saginaw and this is one tiny thing I think we can do to help them and make the doctors’ lives easier.”
Today, Perfetti has gone from being the little billet brother to being the big one in his home away from home in Saginaw with the Bordeaux family and their son Cooper.
“Cooper is a young player and he has taken him under his wing,” Drinkill said. “Honestly, knowing Cooper before Cole got there and knowing him now, you can see how Cole has rubbed off on Coop.”
When talking about the people who have impacted the way he carries himself, Perfetti always comes back to Andreoff. He bonded with Brown and Cassels, but he was older then. His connection with Andreoff has always existed on a different level. He wants to go out of his way to hang out with Bordeaux, just like Andreoff went out of his way with him.
“I got to see how he was with me and set an example of how to treat your billet family,” Perfetti said. “Andy definitely taught me how to be a good brother.”
Andreoff, now with the Flyers organization, has continued to keep close tabs on Perfetti’s career. When he’s not busy with his professional career in the NHL and AHL, Andreoff carves out time to watch the Spirit play. Andreoff has watched all of his little brother’s games with Team Canada, too. He usually calls him once a month. And when they’re both home during the offseason, Andreoff lives 15 minutes from the Perfetti home and often drops in to say hello.
Though he’s not sure what form the draft will take, Perfetti said he would rather delay his big day if it means he can walk across the stage. He wants to go up and put his jersey on, take his photo and do his interviews with the media, just like his billet brothers did.
It’s also not lost on Perfetti or Andreoff that the Kings will have one of the top picks in the draft.
“That would be crazy if the Kings drafted both of us,” Andreoff said. “I hope one day we play against each other or on the same team. Whatever organization he ends up in, they’re getting an elite player. He’s got a long career ahead of him.”
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