A year ago this week, the Deseret News published an article entitled “Why Logan Cooley should NOT sign yet.” A year later, the hindsight matches the foresight.
Unfortunately for Cooley, he doesn’t seem to be a Deseret News reader.
The now-22-year-old signed an eight-year deal in October worth a total of $80 million — $10 million annually. Now that his peers are signing record-breaking contracts, Cooley might feel a tinge of regret.
A year before signing his own big ticket, Cooley had seen his line mate, Dylan Guenther, sign too early and get dubbed one of the most team-friendly deals in the NHL. Fans love a cheap contract, but most players want to make as much money as they can.
The argument, from the Deseret News’ perspective, was that Cooley is only getting better and the cap is only rising, so his value was only going to go up. All of those things happened, but nobody foresaw the third factor: a drastic reset of the market.
Leo Carlsson sent an earthquake through the hockey world in July when he signed a five-year, $18 million AAV offer sheet from the Philadelphia Flyers — more than double the average annual value of the previous biggest offer sheet in NHL history. The Anaheim Ducks chose to match it to keep their budding star, but they’d never envisioned paying him that much money.
Aftershocks followed: Connor Bedard signed for five years at $15 million with his Chicago Blackhawks and the San Jose Sharks extended Macklin Celebrini on a five-year deal at $18.8 million annually.
Cooley will have enough money to last generations too, but his deal puts him significantly behind the others.
Admittedly, Cooley isn’t quite on Celebrini’s level. But on a per-game basis, his production isn’t far behind that of Carlsson or Bedard. If he can stay healthy this season and maintain his momentum, there’s little reason to believe Cooley won’t be right there with those guys.
It’s not just about dollar value, either.
Carlsson set a trend of five-year contracts for young stars, rather than max-term deals. Five years walks Carlsson, Bedard and Celebrini all to unrestricted free agency. Not only will they be able to choose their respective destinations, they’ll also have the leverage to negotiate higher salaries because of the ability to walk away.
As long as they stay healthy and keep playing at a high level, it also gives them the chance to sign a second long-term, big-dollar contract during their prime. The salary cap will likely be much higher than that point, so there’s no telling how high these guys’ career earnings could get.
‘You’ve won, bro’
As much as it might sting to realize he missed a potential opportunity to earn tens of millions of dollars, Cooley can rest assured that he will be wealthy for the rest of his life. That realization was a tipping point in October’s negotiation.
ESPN told the story of a meeting in Mammoth owner Ryan Smith’s suite at the Delta Center the day before leaving for a four-game road trip.
“I said, ‘Can we just call a quick timeout and say, congrats?’” Smith said. “I’ve just watched too many athletes reach all of their dreams. And then they get there and it’s stressful and unhappy. ... So that was my first conversation with Logan: Just stop for a second.
“No matter where this ends up, if you go back to your 13-year-old self, you’ve been betting on yourself, and your family has been betting on everything your entire life. And you’re a 21-year-old now with this option.
“You’ve won, bro.”
The two sides shook on the deal shortly thereafter. The next night, with the weight off his shoulders, Cooley scored three goals in his first six seconds of offensive-zone possession — the type of performance that’s typically reserved for EA Sports NHL games, not real ones.
How does this affect the Utah Mammoth?
The silver lining for Cooley — and Guenther, for that matter — is that while the Ducks, Blackhawks and Sharks will be cash-strapped while their stars are in their prime, the Mammoth will have cash to spend.
Hockey is a team game. One or two superstars aren’t enough to win the Stanley Cup.
The difference between Cooley’s and Carlsson’s salary is $8 million. And $8 million is how much Utah’s next-highest-paid forward, Nick Schmaltz, makes annually. The Mammoth have their top two centers signed for same amount as the Ducks’ top player.
With Guenther’s bargain, there’s even more available cap space.
“We’ve talked about it a ton — it’s winning the Stanley Cup,” Cooley said when asked about his objective for the next almost-decade of his life after signing the deal. “That’s why you play this game. That’s why it’s fun working every day at the rink, trying to get better, trying to work on your game individually (and) as a team.
“I think the best in the league, when it’s all said and done, are judged by winning — and that’s what we love to do. That’s what we want to do and that’s what we’re going to accomplish.”
Creating a culture
Although he primarily cheered for the Washington Capitals as a kid, Cooley grew up in Pittsburgh — Sidney Crosby country. Few players in the modern era of the NHL have lifted the Stanley Cup as many times as he has.
Those Pittsburgh Penguins teams were famous for a culture where the star players “took less” money to leave room for depth additions. Even now, at a time when the Penguins aren’t expected to win the Cup, Crosby continues to take less.
“It was my choice,” Crosby told The Athletic in 2019 of the decision to give the team a discount. “It doesn’t guarantee anything, but that was something I thought might give me a better opportunity to win.”
Crosby and the Penguins won twice during that contract, putting Crosby’s name on it for the second and third time.
Evgeni Malkin, Crosby’s running mate of 20 seasons and counting, explained his perspective in the same article from The Athletic.
“You need two great players to win (the) Stanley Cup,” he said. “Sid is the best player. With him on my team, I always have a chance to win — and he makes (it) easy on me because with Sid on my team in Pittsburgh, I can just play hockey. When Sid did his (third) contract, I knew I should stay. I hope we play in Pittsburgh always.”
Whether intentional or not, Cooley, Guenther and Schmaltz have all taken discounts. The next test is whether the group’s captain, Clayton Keller, does the same.
Keller is not yet eligible to sign an extension, but the time is quickly approaching. He has two years left at $7.15 million, after which he’ll surely be due a significant raise. He can sign a new deal as early as July 1, 2027.
