What seemed unlikely until the last 24 hours has officially occurred. The Arizona Coyotes have signed their top prospect, center Logan Cooley, to his three-year, entry-level deal, according to a team announcement. CapFriendly reports the structure of his ELC, which carries a $950K cap hit, is as follows: a $850K base salary, $95K signing bonus, $1MM type ’A’ performance bonus, and $2.5MM type ’B’ performance bonus. This is the maximum financial compensation Cooley is eligible to receive on his ELC.
Reports from PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman yesterday suggested an official announcement on Arizona signing Cooley could come today or Friday. The news comes after Cooley said earlier this summer he’d return to the University of Minnesota for another year of college hockey in 2023-24.
Cooley, 19, is not just Arizona’s best center prospect – he’s their best prospect overall since selecting star winger Clayton Keller at seventh overall in 2016. Putting up the second-most points of anyone in NCAA hockey last season, Cooley could very well slot in between Keller and Nick Schmaltz and take on first-line duties during his first season in the desert. The product of the Pittsburgh Penguins youth program posted a rather raucous 60 points in 39 games, helping guide Minnesota to the national championship game before conceding to Quinnipiac University in overtime.
As mentioned yesterday, the Coyotes must be happy with their choice to select Cooley at third overall last year over projected first-overall pick Shane Wright, who fell all the way to the Seattle Kraken at fourth overall. While Wright still projects as a promising talent, he’s no longer in a head-and-shoulders tier above the rest of the 2022 class – in fact, Cooley might be the only player you could make that argument for.
It’s worth noting that Cooley is far from a one-dimensional talent. While he did have some growing pains defensively early on in the collegiate season, he’s shown that his speed can be a factor on the backcheck. He can be caught out of position at times when in the defensive zone, though, something he’ll need to work on with Arizona at the NHL level. That shouldn’t be too much of an issue with head coach Andre Tourigny at the helm, who’s regarded as one of the better development coaches in the league. Unfortunately, Arizona hasn’t had a competitive enough roster during Tourigny’s tenure to showcase his full coaching abilities.
At his peak, Cooley is an electric offense-generating talent who demands attention on the ice, especially when making breaks up the middle through the neutral zone. His ability to catch passes in stride makes him a more-than-ideal complement for a strong playmaking winger.
HockeyBuzz is implying today that this is a compromise and that Cooley will be traded soon, HockeyBuzz is consistently wrong but this is what they are saying.
LOL good ol’ Eklund. Didn’t know that clown was still around. He set himself up as a hockey insider, and made it out like he had to remain anonymous, but he turned out to be an obscure musician, who wormed his way into press credentials. Go figure.
Now we know why Wilf is so ill-informed. :D
At least even money that he is Eklund.
Cooley going from one college rink to another. Move the Coyotes to KC & be done with it already!
Kansas City? Why? Has there been one legitimate ownership group that has made known its desire to bring a team to KC? Lamar Hunt, Jr., who likely knows a bit about the KC sports market, recently stated that an NHL franchise there seems unrealistic.
You wanna break out that old Scouts jersey, eh? :D
Don’t worry kid, you’ll be in Salt Lake City soon enough. ;)
Didn’t Wilf Paiement (the real one) play for Kansas City? :o)
Colorado Rockies. Scouts were a bit before his time.
He played for both. Scouts moved to Denver and became the Rockies in 1976.
Cooley should have taken advantage of the loophole, that’s not a loophole, but everyone thinks it is. Silly boy. Now he’s stuck in Arizona.
Gets $95k to sign. Makes $850k in year one with a bunch of bonus cash available. Goes to a young team where there is a great chance he steps right into a top role. All this after one year in college. Yes, a truly silly move.
I was being sarcastic, puppy dog. Guess you don’t know much about hockey, or you’d know I was referring to the fact that he would have been a free agent, after three long years. But yeah, focus on his entry level contract, and not the future. Grab that $850K now, and forget the multimillions he’ll be paid in the future. Sign with a team that may not even be there, in a year or two. Make a cash grab now, the future is soooo far away. It’s all about the Benjamins, right?
You really should learn more about this game, because your lack of knowledge is jaw dropping.
Missed out on McDavid and Bedard, multiple tanks derailed for the Coyotes over 8 years. Hope Cooley is good.
Cooley is good. I think he’ll surprise a lot of people. This kid is electric!!
He is but not with the lack of talent in Arizona
He did so well because he was on a line with Mathew knies and Jimmy suggarud(aka Jimmy snipes) and had solid defence and goaltending behind him, both of which Arizona doesn’t have.
I can’t see this sitting well with the gopher fans around the state here especially since he was talking locally about coming back for a second season just here in the last week or so.
I would expect to hear him get booed the first time Arizona comes to town to pretend to try and play a game against the wild.
Also would not surprise me if he got booed in Arizona too with all the Minnesota transplants that go there in the winter or have moved there for work with Mayo Clinic.
Should have stayed with the team that knows how to win,can,and does win.
Ski-U-Mah
Pride On Ice