When? logan cooly Was eligible for an extension this summer, as his entry-level contract was due to expire after 2025–26, utah mammoth He knew he wanted to sign a long-term deal with the rising superstar. He was given a maximum sentence of eight years that he could serve.
It was a big commitment for 21-year-old Cooley.
GM Bill Armstrong said, “Knowing Logan’s personality and the way he processes decision-making, I knew it would take him a while to get his mind around it.”
Coolies were methodical and patient.
“He is 21 years old, and [it’s] “He’s made the biggest decision he’s made in his entire life, it’s not even close,” said Mammoth owner Ryan Smith. You realize how much it can weigh, because if you think back eight years, I mean eight years ago he was 13 years old. That’s the difference between the time frame of what he’s signing up for.”
Negotiations between Cooley’s agents, Brian and Scott Bartlett, and Mammoth began in August. Armstrong classified those negotiations as cordial but difficult. The season started and no deal was reached. The parties stopped talking, then started talking again.
The NHL’s salary cap was about to rise to historic heights over the next three seasons, and everyone was grappling with new financial realities. Other contracts came up in the league and each represented a data point to shape the negotiations. But what are the services of a young center — an electric skater who is as dynamic offensively as he is defensively responsible — worth these days, especially if he’s willing to commit for nearly a decade?
Mammoth started 5-2-0. Cooley didn’t necessarily have the production everyone expected, scoring two goals and one assist in those first seven games.
“The conversation probably wasn’t being as candid as we wanted,” Cooley said. “After we played avalanche Last night, Ryan [Smith] Wanted to have a meeting.”
They gathered in Smith’s suite at the Delta Center on October 22, the day before a four-game road trip. By that time, an outline for a deal was in place – eight years, $10 million per season, the third-largest contract ever for a player coming off his entry-level contract – but Cooley was not quite ready. Smith saw this as an opportunity for a reset.
“I said, ‘Can we just call a quick timeout and say, congratulations?'” Smith recalled. “I’ve seen a lot of athletes reach all their dreams. And then they get there and it’s stressful and sad. … So that was my first conversation with Logan: Just wait for a second. It doesn’t matter where it ends up, if you go back to your 13-year-old self, you’re betting on yourself, and your family is betting on everything your whole life. And now you’re 21 years old. And with this option you win, brother.”
For Cooley, the conversation opened up a few things.
“He’s an incredible owner because he cares about us as a team and gives us every opportunity to succeed,” Cooley said. “But the conversation wasn’t just about hockey. He supported me and if I respond to him, we can do something exciting. It was a really good meeting. We agreed in all respects, but it wasn’t official yet… We had a flight to catch.”
Coolie grew up West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, sits along the Monongahela River, about 12 miles from downtown Pittsburgh. He is highly competitive, with an innate desire to improve every day, but is also known as a humble and calm individual. Coolies still do not use abusive words. And he is very serious about hockey.
He was born a year earlier in 2004 Sidney Crosbydebuted with penguinFour years later, Crosby launched his “Little Penguins Program”, designed to make hockey more accessible with free equipment and ice time. 400 children ages 4–7 attended Crosby’s program in its inaugural year. Coolie was one of them,
Coolie’s passion for sports started from here. But since he made his name through hockey — starring for the U.S. National Development Team program for two years before a season at the University of Minnesota — his biggest priority was always his family.
Cooley looked up to his two older brothers, Eric and Riley, who played hockey before him. His parents, Eric and Kathy, are part of the family business, which runs vending machines and arcade games in restaurants and bars throughout Pennsylvania.
Cooley is proud of the community he comes from. it was Draft No. 3 in 2022 By the organization (which was the Arizona Coyotes at the time). After Cooley’s first season with the University of Minnesota, he intended to return for his sophomore season. Armstrong and his staff were eager to sign him.
Armstrong recalled, “I talked him into coming with us, basically to get him out of college. And he said, ‘Under one condition.’ “I said, ‘Okay, whatever, it doesn’t matter where you get this contract signed.’ He says, ‘You have to come to Pittsburgh.’ So I packed up the whole team, media people and everything else and I think our flights got delayed. we ended up canceling [the flights]We drove up from Cleveland. It literally took us two days to get there.”
Cooley looked like he belonged in his 19-year-old rookie season, playing all 82 games for the Coyotes in 2023-24 and scoring 20 goals.
However, off the ice, the franchise was in jeopardy. Coyotes had cycled through the revolving door of ownership groups. The team of the most recent owners was playing here 4,600-seat college arena on the campus of Arizona StateBut after failed promises, poor behavior and financial mismanagement, the NHL had enough. The league struck a deal in April 2024 that included Smith — a self-made billionaire through technology who also owns the NBA’s Jazz — Buying the franchise for $1.2 billion And immediately they are being taken to Utah.
Since then, Smith has followed through on every promise.
The Delta Center was not yet fully adapted for hockey, sections were closed during the 2024–25 season. But in just one offseason, Smith helped engineer a massive renovation in the lower bowl, adding a friendly approach and approach to the game.
Last season, the team trained at the old Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City. This would have been absolutely sufficient. Once again, in an offseason, Smith took the lead and opened a dedicated 146,000-square-foot practice complex for the Mammoth, now considered the best throughout the league.
“If you look at what we’ve done, the branding was definitely a moonshot. The facility was definitely a moonshot in that time frame. Getting an NHL team here was a moonshot. Our organization works very hard, and these guys do a thorough job,” Smith said.
“Did I think we’d be in this place so quickly? I mean, that would be an optimistic way to look at it, but sometimes things just align. … I’m glad we established a culture that Cools wanted to be here, because at the end of the day, I can talk to the organization Cools wants to be here to sign that deal.”
coolie moved forward Plane for a four-game road trip, knowing he would sign the deal. But it will have to be kept hidden for a week.
“I told my parents, my siblings but said, ‘We have to keep it quiet,'” Cooley said. “Many times it was on the tip of my tongue, but I kept it inside. I told [Clayton] Keller And [Mikhail] sergachevFriends who should know first.”
But knowing the news itself was the biggest thing.
“It allowed me to be free,” Cooley said. “Maybe it was in my mind at the beginning of the season. But now I feel like my mind is free and I can do the things I like to do.”
The very next night, Cooley helped ian coleA goal of three minutes and 18 seconds in the game against st louis bluesCooley then scored a natural hat trick – scoring all three goals in a span of 10 minutes in the first period.
“It’s off to a hot start,” Smith said. “I was like yeah, I think he’s in good shape.”
Two nights later, against minnesota wildCooley scored two more goals in the first three and a half minutes of the game.
It’s all about the handshake in the owner’s suite.
“I think he left that meeting really comfortable. I think a lot of his questions got answered. You could see that in him,” Armstrong said. “I think the way the world came off his shoulders and he went out and ruined it on a road trip.”
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Logan Cooley scores again for Utah after review
Logan Cooley got his fifth goal with this effort in his last four outings in hockey which almost goes to the Wild vs.
The Mammoth are poised to be a playoff team and have a very bright future. Cooley is the team’s new highest-paid player, but he’s part of a core that includes Keller, Sergachev, Karel Vejmelka, dylan guenther And JJ PeterkaWhich are signed at least till 2027-28.
“We’re playing the game with a lot of confidence. We’re playing the game we know how to play,” Cooley said. “There are still a lot of games left, but we are seeing a lot more maturity this year, guys have a lot more confidence and we know we can be a top team in the league.”
Bringing young players on board is a “huge task”, as Smith said.
“We’re starting a franchise. I’m learning from them and they’re learning from me,” Smith said. “Arguing over a little money here or there, maybe it wasn’t for both of us.
“It was like, ‘Hey, how do you see me? And are you ready to go all the way?'”
