Logan Cooley is off to a fantastic start to his NHL career as he is already making a big impact for the Arizona Coyotes.
Logan Cooley has had a great start to his NHL career with the Arizona Coyotes thus far through the first two games of the season.
The 19-year-old center took no time at all to make an impact for the Coyotes as he already has three assists.
Cooley seems to be fitting in well on a line with Jason Zucker and Alexander Kerfoot while he continues to thrive on the power play playing alongside Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Barrett Hayton and Sean Durzi.
The most impressive part of Cooley’s game has to be his playmaking abilities. While he is yet to score a goal in this short time span, Cooley has been phenomenal creating for his teammates which is an aspect of his game not many boasted about prior to him playing in the NHL.
He may just be going into his third professional hockey game but coach André Tourigny is not treating Cooley any differently than other players on the team.
“I’m not managing Logan Cooley any differently than our other players,” Tourigny said. “He is an NHL player and he needs to be ready to play every night and to make sure he is focused and detailed and stay with it. Having that said, I’m not expecting him to play like a 30-year-old player, yet. It’s a learning curve. I expect him to pay attention to those things, to learn every game and I’m excited to see his talent and his competitiveness.”
Cooley just experienced his first loss in the NHL which Tourigny feels he will learn from as he still had his bright moments throughout the game.
“I saw a guy that was elite and then he got impatient and started to force a little bit but the competitiveness was never at fault,” Tourigny said. “He competed all night long. He tried to make plays. It was his first game at Madison Square Garden and second game in the NHL, there is a lot of growth there.”
It’s clear that Cooley has all the tools in the world to be not just a good but a great NHL player. He has put his speed and puck handling skills on display over the past two games, looking comfortable in this professional setting.
Cooley will go through some ups and downs but overall, he is on the right path to achieve great things in the future.