Logan Cooley was only 10 years old when a traumatic injury could have ended his oldest brother’s hockey career.
Eric, then 16, was skating with the puck on a breakaway during a game in Michigan when he was tripped from behind. The oldest of three in a passionate hockey family from the Pittsburgh area, Cooley tumbled toward the crease at the same time the goalie dropped down to make a kick save. The goalie’s skate blade lacerated Cooley’s right thigh, severing the muscle and everything attaching it to his knee cap.
Cooley needed 24 internal stitches and 26 staples. The blade came within an inch of his artery. The recovery was expected to take six to eight months with additional time to regain the lower-body strength that made him a promising prospect with college aspirations.
“I just remember thinking the whole time after I knew I’d be OK, ‘Will I ever play again?’ ” Cooley, 24, recalled in a conversation with The Buffalo News. “’Are my dreams of pursuing college and pro hockey done that quick out of nowhere?’”
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Two months later, Cooley played in his first game. There were painful treatments – a specialist used his hands to dig into the cut to break down the scar tissue inside the muscles and promote healing – but nothing could cure the mental anguish he endured that day, the sight of blood, limping to the dressing room and the emergency surgery that followed. He wasn’t able to play his fast, aggressive style until the following season.
The ordeal didn’t prevent Cooley from fulfilling his dream of playing college hockey. He was a reliable two-way forward for Niagara University in 130 games across four seasons from 2017-21, and he completed his college career with a final year at Ohio State. He has a deal in place to sign with an American Hockey League team this summer.
While Cooley was working his way back, Logan, was always watching. Inspired by Eric’s recovery and driven to achieve a lifelong dream, Logan developed into the possible No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL draft, which will be held July 7 in Montreal.
Buffalo Sabres prospect Eric Cooley during development camp on Wednesday, June 26, 2019.
“Watching him progress through his career so far, it hasn’t been the easiest for him,” Logan, an 18-year-old center, said when asked about Eric during the NHL scouting combine at LECOM Harborcenter. “He’s always had to battle through things. … Just the way he battled through adversity is something that I can put into my career and anything I can take from him. He’s a special kid and a special player, too.”
Logan was ranked the second-best North American skater by NHL Central Scouting and dined in Buffalo this week with management from the Montreal Canadiens, who own the first pick in the draft. He’s a dynamic, playmaking center who rose to prominence at the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.
During his two years in Plymouth, Mich., Cooley developed into one of the best amateur players in the country. In 2021-22, he totaled 27 goals and 75 points in 51 games with the program. On the international stage, he led the United States to a silver medal at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship with 10 points in six games.
Cooley aced the physical testing at the NHL scouting combine in Buffalo and met with the teams at the top of the draft, including dinners with the Canadiens and Arizona Coyotes. He’s not expected to be selected later than third overall by Arizona and is committed to play hockey at the University of Minnesota next season.
“In the draft, you always want to be the number one guy,” Logan said. “You never want to be second. That’s just me as a player and as a person overall. I never want to be second.”
“He’s ridiculous, man,” added Rutger McGroarty, a draft-eligible winger who was on Cooley’s line at NTDP. “He just attacks the game. Obviously, you guys see his hands, his speed. I feel like he’s really worked on his shot as well and I feel like that’s something he’s improved a lot on. … He’s the total package, and I feel he’s going to be an impact player in the NHL.”
Expected to be the highest Pittsburgh-area player ever selected in the NHL draft, Cooley is the latest high-end prospect from the NTDP, a one-of-a-kind academy that annually selects 23 of the best players in the same birth year to compete against each other on and off the ice in preparation for international tournaments. But his growth as a player and person began long before he relocated to Michigan.
The Cooley family – including brothers Eric, Riley and Logan – lives east of Pittsburgh on a plot of land they refer to as the compound. One of the boys’ uncles, John Mooney, and his family live next door. A former player at Colorado College, Mooney built a rink in the yard that features wooden boards and a refrigerated chiller to maintain the ice. It was an upgrade over the 50×50 sheet of ice that the Cooley’s father, Eric, created by flooding a slab of concrete at the bottom of their driveway.
Together, the Cooley boys and their three cousins, Ireland, Kaley and LJ, would stay on the ice until they were pulled off by their parents.
Riley came up through the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite youth program and spent a season in the North American Hockey League; Ireland and Kaley played collegiately at Miami University (Ohio) and LJ, now 15, is a top player in Pittsburgh.
Logan wasn’t even 2 years old when he first started skating and would never want to leave the outdoor rink. But he was shy when at learn-to-play sessions, insisting his parents stand along the glass.
“People would think this kid’s not good, but he’d get on the ice, and they’d see he’s this unbelievable talent,” Eric said. “I don’t remember him not being able to play. It’s kind of funny. Every team after the learn-to-play stuff was, you’d go to the game and it wasn’t unusual to expect him to have at least three or four goals.
“Me and my brother (Riley) joke that we don’t remember a time that he wasn’t dominating. It’s no shock after all the countless days and hours he puts in. He lives and breathes the game. It’s all he knows.”
Logan was playing in the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite organization when Eric started his career at Niagara. Visits to the campus in Lewiston and time at Eric’s games opened Logan’s eyes to what hockey could offer. In consecutive years, Eric attended development camp with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres.
Logan couldn’t fathom a future in which he was one of the top prospects in the NHL draft, his every word scrutinized during interviews at the scouting combine. His family and upbringing were a topic of discussion in those talks with teams.
Hundreds of miles separated the brothers in recent years, but they remained close. Each watched the other’s games, and the would talk on the phone afterward. They still skate together every summer at a rink south of Pittsburgh.
Logan’s ascent might seem meteoric from the outside – Shane Wright has long been considered the consensus top pick in this draft – but everyone at home was confident this day would arrive.
“I’ve never been surprised,” said Eric. “I knew this was coming for him the whole time and when people say they want it and they’re really working for it, they probably haven’t met my brother. He’s certainly done that. All that work is finally paying off for him. As a brother, I couldn’t be more proud and happy for him.”