Through his rookie campaign for the Coyotes Logan Cooley has been through a lot of ups and downs, but is now playing his best hockey specifically at the defensive level.

Logan Cooley has made major strides in his game throughout his rookie season specifically defensively.

Over the first half of the year, Cooley showed flashes offensively, but struggled adjusting to defense at the NHL level.

This caused a decrease in minutes for Cooley as he had not yet proven himself as a reliable two-way center.

Lately however, the 19-year-old has been playing both on the penalty kill and in late game situations when the Coyotes are trying to maintain their lead.

There is a reason for this.

“It showed he earned it, that’s what it shows,” coach André Tourigny said. “We said at training camp, he has to earn the right to play in those situations. He has the talent, but we don’t want us to give him that opportunity, we want him to earn it and now he can be proud of himself because he earned it. Nobody gave it to him, he earned it. In the last week especially, I think he played really good defense…”

It’s clear while watching Cooley that he is just playing with more confidence which is translating perfectly to his individual game.

“It’s my first year in the league, obviously there are going to be a lot of ups and downs,” Cooley said. “You just try to stay positive, you just try to learn as much as you can each day and watch video, watch guys in the league that you try to model your game after… Obviously it’s always nice to have confidence, it’s when you are playing at your best. It’s gone and came back a couple times this year, but I’m playing with confidence now and I feel pretty good.”

Cooley just seems to have more tenacity, physicality and sense of passion in his play, something that continues to be noticeable each time he is on the ice.

Offensively, Cooley is growing into the player that the Coyotes essentially drafted him to be. He has three goals in his past five games as his confidence grows each day.

In 68 games, the young center has 13 goals, 19 assists and 32 points while averaging 15:48 minutes of ice time.

It’s been really exciting to see the growth of Cooley from up close and it all shows how high his potential could truly be one day.