Coyotes Coach Explains Logan Cooley Shorten Minutes

While Logan Cooley has shown flashes of great things over his first seven games with the Arizona Coyotes, he is also going through some growing pains.

During the Coyotes Friday night matchup against the Los Angeles Kings, Cooley played just a total of 11:33 minutes, the least amount of time he has played in a game this season.

Coach André Tourigny decided to bench the 19-year-old rookie for large parts of the third period on Friday. Tourigny explained his reasoning during Sunday’s practice.

“I had a tremendous discussion with a super smart young man this morning,” Tourigny said. “He knows exactly what his expectations are. What I really loved about our conversation, he told me before I told him so he knew what happened and why it happened. He is a young man who was extremely competitive. It was all about compete for him but not in the right areas…”

Cooley has a total of five assists so far, tied for third in overall rookie points.

While Tourigny did shorten Cooley’s minutes on Friday, he made clear that the team still believes in him and know that he can reach his full potential.

“He understood my decision and he didn't tell me he appreciated it and I assume he did not, but he understands,” Tourigny said. “He knows he is important to us, to me and he understands the process. He knows what he has to do to play a lot because everyone is talking about his offense, but more than that he has the potential to be an exceptional two-way player.”

It's clear that Cooley possesses all the tools and skills to be a star in the NHL one day but getting adjusted from the NCAA to the NHL doesn't just happen overnight.

Cooley may have had his bright moments thus far but he needs to continue to show his worth at both ends of the ice and that aspect of his game will take some time to fully develop.

It will be interesting to see how Cooley responds to his most recent performance on Friday as he is set to go head-to-head against the 2023 first overall pick, Connor Bedard.