Logan Cooley is the youngest player on the Utah Hockey Club roster, but he’s the third-highest scorer: He has 30 points in 33 games.
He’s currently on his entry-level contract, which is cost-controlled. But come July 1, he’ll be eligible to sign for big money and a long term.
Let’s take a dive into what makes Cooley so valuable to Utah’s NHL team and whose contracts could serve as comparables.
What makes Logan Cooley so good?
There’s an argument to be made that Cooley should have gone first overall in his draft, rather than third — and it’s not just his scoring.
He backchecks, he kills penalties, he pushes his teammates to be better and he always has an impeccable attitude.
“One of his biggest tools — (and) he has a lot of good tools — is his compete level,” Cooley’s coach, André Tourigny, said of him in a press conference on Monday. “He’s extremely competitive.”
Cooley is a new-age player in the sense that he’s extremely skilled with the puck. He can do things that the best players 10 years ago would never have even thought of, and they usually work.
But in a sense, he also plays an old-fashioned game. For him, it’s all about doing things the right way.
For example, he fell while accepting a pass in the offensive zone against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday. An opposing player picked up the puck in Cooley’s absence and started on his way toward the Utah net.
Other players in that situation may have tried to trip or hook the puck carrier to slow him down, but Cooley sprawled out and hooked the puck back into his own possession. He then took the puck behind the Ducks’ net and used his offensive abilities to make a great pass.
Then, when Cooley took an unnecessary penalty late in that same game, allowing the Ducks to tie it up and send the game to overtime, he didn’t hesitate to take responsibility.
“It’s a stupid play by me, something that can’t happen and I deserved to be benched,” he said. “I take accountability for that.”
Early money or bridge deal?
Cooley’s teammate, Dylan Guenther, signed an extension during training camp that will pay him a little more than $7.14 million annually for the next eight years.
It was a gamble that a lot of general managers have taken with their young players over the past few years: Sign players to long-term deals before they’ve fully proven themselves for somewhat high amounts of money in hopes that after a few years, they’ll be considered underpaid.
In some cases, this strategy has paid off nicely for the teams.
New Jersey Devils forward Jack Hughes is probably the chief example of that: When he first signed, the Devils received harsh criticism for committing that much money to a guy that had yet to prove himself in the NHL. Now that Hughes is perennially among the league’s top scorers, he’s considered one of the most underpaid players in the league.
Whether Cooley would take a similar contract is the question. His options this summer will likely be a Guenther-type deal or a shorter-term “bridge deal,” worth a lower amount, in hopes that he can sign his big ticket after proving himself to be a true star.
Logan Cooley contract comparables
There’s never a perfect comparable for an NHL player because playing styles never completely match. Some guys don’t produce as much as others offensively, but they make up for it in things like grit, defense, size, etc. These comparables are based solely on point production.
It’s harder to nail down comparables for bridge deals, so we’ll stick to long-term values here.
We’ll keep everything consistent by putting stats in 82-game paces. For reference, Cooley scored 44 points in 82 games last year and is on pace for 72 this year.
Tage Thompson
Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson took a few years to break out, but once he did, he got paid immediately. It was a 68-point season (71 points on an 82-game pace) that tipped the scales, earning him a seven-year deal at the same number as Guenther: $7.14 million and change.
After signing his big ticket, Thompson emerged as a superstar with 47 goals and 94 points in 78 games. He has since cooled off, but his contract is still among the most team-friendly in the league.
Josh Norris
A season at a 51-point pace followed by one at a 68-point pace earned Ottawa Senators forward Josh Norris a nice deal: eight years at $7.95 million.
Norris has since taken a step back, scoring at paces of 49 and 51 points. He’s still a good NHL player, but he should serve as a cautionary tale to overzealous general managers. He’s probably not worth the amount he earns.
Juraj Slafkovský
As top-three picks in the 2022 draft, Cooley and Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovský will forever be compared to each other. Slafkovský played in the NHL immediately after being drafted, while Cooley went back to college for another year. That allowed Slafkovský to sign his big contract a season earlier than Cooley.
When Slafkovský's contract kicks in next season, he’ll make $7.6 million annually on an eight-year term. He earned it through a 50-point season in 82 games last year, preceded by a half season at a 21-point pace.
He hasn’t necessarily justified that type of money with his production this year, but at the same time, he’s only 20 years old. We’ll be able to accurately judge him in a few years.
Jack Hughes
As mentioned above, Hughes has made Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald look like a genius.
Despite Hughes’ paces of just 28 and 45 points in his first two seasons, Fitzgerald handed him an eight-year contract worth $8 million a year. He immediately had a season at a 94-point pace, followed by 104 and 98.
If he continues his current pace, he’ll have 96 points by the end of the year.
How does Cooley compare?
Cooley’s totals in his rookie year are comparable to lots of these guys, but his pace this year surpasses all of them.
If he can keep it up the rest of the season, he’ll have a good case to ask for more money than any of them got.
With all of those players making between $7 million and $8 million, Cooley is probably in a position to ask for $8.5 million — on the low end.
To be honest, he’s probably worth that money already. Any seven-digit number would probably end up being highway robbery for the team.
Either way, the team has him at $950,000 the rest of this season and all of the next one.