Logan Cooley Thrives in NHL Debut

Logan Cooley tallied two assists for the Arizona Coyotes in his NHL debut Friday night as he showed the world what he is truly capable of.

Going into the Arizona Coyotes opening night game on Friday against the New Jersey Devils, all eyes were on rookie forward Logan Cooley.

Cooley was selected by the Coyotes with the third overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft so the expectation for him to perform in his first ever NHL game were pretty high to say the least.

The 19-year-old ultimately did make a strong first impression tallying two assists on the night in a Coyotes 4-3 victory.

“It was honestly my first real test of NHL hockey, obviously preseason there are still a lot of young prospects,” Cooley said. “So to finally get out there against a top end team like them obviously, they had an unreal playoffs last year and it was a really good test for us, but I loved our resiliency through the game. We need to stay a little more disciplined, but just the way we bounced back during that third period and stayed with it, it shows you what type of team we have.”

Cooley recorded his first point of the night in the second period getting an assist on the Sean Durzi goal putting Arizona up 2-0 but his most impressive play came in the third period.

Down 3-2, the Coyotes went to the power play and Cooley used his impressive speed to draw some New Jersey defenders to him. The young forward gave Nick Schmaltz a beautiful no-look backhand pass and he buried it into the net evening up the score.

To be able to keep his calm and composure in that moment in his first professional hockey game shows the type of character he has.

Coach André Tourigny has a lot of trust in Cooley already putting him on the first wave of the power play and he showed that he can not only hang around but thrive against top-notch NHL talent.

“I've always had high expectations for myself,” Cooley said. “I want to produce at a high rate, I want to help this team win games and that's my goal through the whole year and this is just one step in the right direction.”

Playing your first NHL game only happens once and it is a moment that Cooley will certainly never forget.

“I think just the whole experience of first stepping on the ice, the solo lap and having my family here and obviously the first NHL points is pretty special to get that out of the way and obviously, the most important thing is the team win,” Cooley said. “The guys welcomed me in so nice and for us to get that win especially against the New Jersey team like that, it's pretty special.”