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Douglas is 6-foot-9. Only two NHL players have stood that tall: Hall of Fame-bound defenseman , who won a Stanley Cup and a Norris Trophy with the Boston Bruins; and current New York Rangers center Matt Rempe, who’s also listed at 6-9 — although some accounts say he’s 6-8½.

Hockey players have gotten bigger. The average height in the NHL at the start of the season was about 6-1½, . The average height of an NHL goalie is over 6-3.

The Roadrunners, who conclude their latest homestand Saturday night vs. the Ontario Reign, have a 6-7 defenseman, Maveric Lamoureux. The next-tallest player on the team is 6-4 goalie Matthew Villalta.

Height does not necessarily equate to dominance in hockey. This isn’t basketball. The current scoring leader in the NHL, Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon, is 6 feet tall. So is Wayne Gretzky.

How does Curtis Douglas — all 6-9, 242 pounds of him — fit it into this world of speed and skill?

He’s trying to find his way, one long stride at a time.

The ‘darker side’

Ryan McGregor, Douglas’ roommate and best friend, described his fellow center as a guy everyone wants to hang out with.

“He’s kind of a teddy bear,” McGregor said with a sly grin. “He’s really soft on the inside. Just a really genuine guy.”

Douglas’ nickname, “Dougie,” is straight out of Hockey Monikers 101. But when you hear “Dougie,” you don’t think “enforcer.” Yet since his arrival in Tucson in November 2022, Douglas consistently has ranked among the Roadrunners’ leaders in penalty minutes. He is a willing and able fighter.

“Right away, when you’re 6-9, they expect you to be the toughest, the hardest,” Roadrunners coach Steve Potvin said. “They don’t think of you as a person that should be kind or respectful or nice. But he’s all those things.

“So he’s had to learn to alter expectations and to also push himself into those types of moments where he has to get to a little darker side that maybe he doesn’t want to get to.”

Potvin described Douglas as a “fun, spirited warrior type” who “has a deeper knowledge of humanity than people probably give him credit for.” Asked last offseason on the to name his nerdiest trait, Douglas said: “I really enjoy stoicism.”

Even for a Canadian, that seems like an extreme choice. How many 24-year-olds are reading the works of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca the Younger?

As Potvin suggested, our instinct is to label people in the most simplistic way — especially athletes. They’re tall or strong or tough or fast or quick or nifty or gritty.

The truth is, they’re complex individuals. We all are.

Douglas might very well be a nice guy off the ice. On it, to get where he really wants to go, he has to tap into a side of his personality that lies dormant the other 21 hours of the day.

Once the puck is dropped, he must fit into an archetype. He has to become a physical force.

“It’s a big learning curve trying to figure out where you can make an impact,” Douglas, 24, said. “If that’s what I gotta do to make that step, then that’s what I gotta do. I’ll do anything to get there.”

“There” is the NHL, the pinnacle of professional hockey. Douglas isn’t going to make it via his scoring prowess. He had three goals in 33 games entering Friday’s contest against the Reign.

But even as the NHL has evolved into a skill-based league — — it still has a place for bodyguards.

Douglas is tough to beat in a bout. Not only does he have a reach advantage against most foes, he goes to boxing gyms to train. is Douglas’ spot when he’s in Tucson.

“It’s honestly super fun just to get out there and get rid of some negative energy and let off some steam,” said Douglas, whose father, Tom, was a semi-professional boxer back in the day.

Douglas doesn’t spar at the gym. But he doesn’t hesitate to drop the gloves on the ice. That garners respect in the locker room.

Tom Douglas instilled in Curtis at a young age that “protecting my teammates, for me, it’s more impactful than a goal or an assist,” he said. “It’s not the only thing I can do. But if it needs to be done, I’ll do it.”

Learning curves

Douglas is from Oakville, Ontario, which is about halfway between Toronto and Hamilton. Like so many Canadian youths, including older brothers Mitchell and Spencer, Curtis grew up playing hockey.

He also played baseball and lacrosse — but not, despite what you might assume, basketball.

“I grew kind of late,” Douglas said. “I was always sort of tall, but I wasn’t, like, super tall. Then I hit a growth spurt when I was 13, 14. I grew 6 or 8 inches in a year.”

Still, Douglas aspired to be like , not Steve Nash. It required almost relearning how to skate. It’s something Douglas works on to this day.

“It’s been a learning curve up until now,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure it out and get into my body and make sure that my skating gets better every year. It’s been something I had to be very vigilant (about).

“That couple years where I grew a lot, it was a little Bambi-on-ice situation. I had trouble getting balance, some knee stuff.”

Douglas had no trouble getting properly attired as he could wear hand-me-downs from his brothers, who are in the 6-3/6-4 range. When he started playing junior hockey, Douglas was advised to use regular-length sticks. (Chára received an exemption from the NHL to use sticks longer than the maximum legal length of 63 inches.) Douglas took that advice to heart as it came from , who coached the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League before passing away in 2000.

“He thought that it would make me get lower, get a little closer to the ice and get a little more power in my skating,” Douglas said. “He was a tremendous coach and person, and he taught me a ton. That’s one of the things I kind of carry along, and it’s a nice little tribute to think of him once in a while.”

After one-plus season in Barrie, Douglas played for the Windsor Spitfires. The Dallas Stars selected him in the fourth round of the 2018 NHL Draft.

In 2021, Douglas signed with the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ AHL affiliate. It was something of a dream come true for a kid from Oakville.

But in the fall of 2022, Douglas was traded to the Arizona Coyotes organization. Douglas said he was surprised to have been dealt — but not disappointed. He saw coming to Tucson as a growth opportunity — a chance to meet new people and hear new ideas.

Douglas views his interactions with gawking fans the same way. Wait, you’re a hockey player?

“It’s fun to be a conversation starter and get to talk to everyone,” Douglas said. “That’s cool.”

“I don’t think he loves it,” McGregor said. “I know he doesn’t love it. But yeah, he’s nice to them still.”