Coach André Tourigny explained why he put Logan Cooley alongside Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz briefly at the end of Saturday afternoon's game.
During the Arizona Coyotes 5-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, some fans may have noticed that André Tourigny put Logan Cooley alongside Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz for a small portion of the third period.
Normally, Cooley plays with Michael Carcone and Travis Boyd while Barrett Hayton is paired with Keller and Schmaltz but a switch was made after Lawson Crouse left the game briefly due to an injury which Tourigny explained postgame.
“Well first of all, we did that when Crouse went down, we needed to make some changes,” Tourigny said. “We didn’t want to have Kerfoot in Crouse’s spot so from there we had to juggle a little bit. We tried to get some life, some speed with Keller and Schmaltz, we tried it. It is what it is.”
Overall, Cooley did not see the ice for a ton of time, logging in a total of 12:40 minutes, the second least amount of time he’s recorded in his young NHL career thus far.
Don’t expect Cooley playing with Keller and Schmaltz to become a permanent thing going forward.
While Hayton has still failed to record a single point this season, Tourigny has voiced his optimism that he will begin to produce soon and still has confidence with him on that line.
We could see Cooley alongside Keller and Schmaltz during late game situations similar to Saturday afternoon when the Coyotes are desperately looking to spark some offense.
Cooley’s minutes have been sporadic this year. He’s played up to 19 minutes some nights and as low as 12 minutes other nights, so it will be interesting to see how Tourigny continues to utilize the rookie center going forward.