Undrafted after completing juniors, Cote was a walk on to the Toronto Maple Leafstraining camp in fall 2002. He impressed the Leafs staff, signed a one-year contract, and was assigned to the Leafs Central Hockey League affiliate, the Memphis RiverKings. While called up to the St. John's Maple Leafs, Toronto's American Hockey League affiliate, a few times during the 2002–03 season, he spent most of his rookie year with the RiverKings and was with them when they won the CHL championship that season. Not re-signed by the Leafs, Cote was signed to a two-way contract by the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL and entered the training camp for their NHL affiliate, the Columbus Blue Jackets, in fall 2003. Columbus released him and he returned to the Crunch. An eye injury caused during a pre-season scrimmage resulted in Cote being assigned to the Crunch's ECHL affiliate, the Dayton Bombers, for much of the 2003–04 season. Cote was recruited back to the RiverKings for the 2004–05 season but was offered a try-out contract by the AHL's Philadelphia Phantoms just before the season began. The Phantoms extended his contract twice through the season and Cote eventually spent the entire season with Philadelphia, accumulating a team-leading 280 penalty minutes in the process, and helped the Phantoms win the Calder Cup as league champions. Shortly after the season ended, the Phantoms signed him to a one-year contract. After participating in the Philadelphia Flyers training camps in the fall of 2005 and 2006, Cote was signed to a two-way contract by the Flyers in 2006–07. Early in the season, he was assigned to the Phantoms and shortly after suffered an ankle injury that kept him from playing for two months. Late in the season, Cote played in his first 8 NHL games with the Flyers, making his NHL debut on March 24, 2007 against the New York Islanders. Cote was recognized for his contributions to the community when the Phantoms named him as the team's 2006–07 Man of the Year. Cote was re-signed by the Flyers to a one-year contract for the 2007–08 season and made the team out of training camp. Cote was suspended for three games after he delivered a high head shot to Dallas Stars defenceman Matt Niskanen late in the third period on December 1, 2007. He became the fifth Flyers player to receive a suspension during the 2007–08 season after Steve Downie, Jesse Boulerice, Randy Jones and Scott Hartnell. Cote scored his only NHL goal on February 17, 2008 against rookie goaltender Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. On July 2, 2008 the Flyers announced they had signed Cote to a three-year contract extension. After appearing in only 15 games during the season, Cote retired on August 9, 2010 and was named an assistant coach of the Adirondack Phantoms.
During his time in the NHL, Cote used cannabis as a natural pain-reliever and alternative to addictive pharmaceutical drugs. After retiring, Cote co-founded Athletes for Care, a group that advocates for athletes on various matters of health and safety including the use of cannabis as medicine. Cote is also an advocate for hemp, founding the Hemp Heals Foundation to educate the public about the nutritional benefits of hemp and its numerous eco-friendly industrial uses. The organization hosts an annual music festival in Philadelphia to raise awareness about the various benefits and applications of the hemp plant. Cote is also a board member of the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council.
Personal life
Cote has been an advocate for multiple sclerosis diagnosis and treatment since his older sister, Jamie, was diagnosed with the disease in 2000. His nickname is Riles.
