Star Utah center Logan Cooley will be sidelined indefinitely with a lower-body injury, the team announced Friday. He’ll be re-evaluated when the league schedule resumes following the 4 Nations Face-Off.
It’s not clear when Cooley sustained the injury. He skated 19:50 against the Penguins on Wednesday, more than two minutes above his season average, and ended a three-game point drought in the process with a secondary assist on a Mikhail Sergachev power play goal.
Cooley, the third-overall pick of the 2022 draft by the Coyotes, has yet to miss a game since signing his entry-level contract with Arizona in the summer of 2023. He’ll now be held out of Utah’s next six games, the balance of their schedule until the 4 Nations tournament, at a minimum.
The 20-year-old’s absence will be felt immensely for a team with a bottom-10 offense already dealing with a lower-body injury to top-six winger Dylan Guenther. He’s broken out in a big way after an inconsistent rookie campaign, ranking second on Utah in scoring with 43 points (15 G, 28 A) through 50 games. His plus-four rating is tied for fourth on the club, and his 17:47 ATOI ranks third among forwards behind Clayton Keller and Nick Schmaltz. He’s also improving in the faceoff dot – while still subpar with a 44.2% win rate on over 500 draws, it’s up by a significant margin from last year’s 38% figure.
That jump in production comes despite Cooley logging most of his time at even strength away from Keller and Schmaltz, who Barrett Hayton has centered for most of the year. Instead, Cooley anchors the team’s second line between Guenther and Jack McBain, still tying for second on the team with 19 even-strength assists.
Cooley’s two-way game is still developing, but more concerning is the loss of Utah’s arguably most effective even-strength producer as they slide further out of the wild-card race in the Western Conference. It’s been an injury-fueled, inconsistent first year in Salt Lake City for the ex-Coyotes group, who have dealt with extended absences to Guenther and top-four defenders Sean Durzi and John Marino. It’s not all bad news, though – Marino returned earlier this month and has four assists through eight games, while Guenther and Durzi skated with the team today in non-contact jerseys, Belle Fraser of The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
In the meantime, Hayton will likely overtake Cooley’s job on the top power-play unit and will look to boost his production. The 2018 fifth-round pick has been a good two-way complement at even strength to Keller and Schmaltz, recording 26 points through 50 games with a second-place plus-seven rating. Hayton’s 11 even-strength goals are second on the team behind Keller’s 13, but he has just two power-play points this season while skating with the second unit.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Utah will be a force in the not to distant future, Bill Armstrong has done a magnificent job as GM, Alot of the retread executives around the league should pay attention to Armstrong’s philosophy. I still think the best name for the club is Stingers, And honestly, How long does it take to find a good team name, I came up with Stingers in less than an hour. Utah has taken quite a bit of time to name the team and so far have come up with bad names.
Shame, he was really playing well this season.