Stones of the Yarra Valley

Is Logan Cooley a franchise player? Mammoth score 6 unanswered goals to beat Kraken

· Yahoo Sports

Fans cheer as Utah Mammoth center Logan Cooley (92) celebrates his goal in the first period of an NHL game against the Minnesota Wild held at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News

The Utah Mammoth believe Logan Cooley is a franchise-level player, which they declared by giving him an $80 million contract in the fall.

But this season hasn’t indicated that as clearly as they’d hoped.

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He was playing fine before he got injured in December— 14 goals and 23 points in 29 games — certainly good enough to play in a top-six role in the NHL, but it’s not superstar-level offense.

The team didn’t miss a beat when the injury struck, which led those who closely follow the team to wonder how integral the 21-year-old really is at this point in his young career.

But over the last week, Cooley has shown why 92 is one of the most common jersey numbers seen walking around the Delta Center concourse.

The Mammoth got into a rough patch in their most recent home stand, which allowed the teams trailing them in the standings to get a bit too close for comfort. They were struggling to generate much of anything, and they needed someone to step up.

Cooley saw the Bat Signal, put on his mask, cape and utility belt and headed to the streets of Gotham.

It started with a goal in the Mammoth’s loss to the Washington Capitals. The next game, he increased that to two goals, leading the Mammoth to a 6-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

And in Thursday’s 6-2 win over the Seattle Kraken, he totaled three points — two goals and an assist.

Some of those goals came from opportune moments, but the most impressive ones were when he made something out of nothing. That’s what superstars do.

He’s barely old enough to accompany his teammates to 21+ establishments after games. Players his age only tend to get better with time. Mammoth fans, you can get excited about this guy.

Down, but never out

With a four-day break between games, the Mammoth coaching staff had ample time to plan for the Kraken, but at no point did they conclude the best plan of attack would be to give the opponent a two-goal head start.

But the beauty of hockey is that a two-goal deficit just means you’re two good shots away from tying it up.

Both of those “good shots” came from Cooley, and he knotted the score five seconds past the halfway point in the game. The latter half was all Mammoth, as they scored another four unanswered goals.

“Obviously, (we) started the game not the way we wanted,” said head coach André Tourigny. “We knew we would have a little bit of rust — we didn’t play for four days — but I like the way the guys responded.”

When management talks about players learning how to compete, these are the instances they’re referring to. In future games, maybe in the playoffs or other must-win situations, if they don’t start a game the way they want, they’ll have this one to look back at.

They’ll know they can pull out a win because they’ve done it before. That’s half the battle in player development.

Video coaches to the rescue

When you think of the Utah Mammoth, Hunter Cherni and Alec Rippetoe aren’t likely the first names that come to mind. But in this instance, they contributed more to the team’s win than most of the players.

Cherni and Rippetoe are Utah’s video coaches. One of their responsibilities is to review goals, looking for potential coach’s challenges — and they’re almost never wrong.

NHL officials are good enough at their jobs that video coaches don’t have to call for challenges super often, but against the Kraken on Thursday, they challenged twice: once for a Seattle goal to be overturned and again for a disallowed Utah goal to count.

They were successful on both occasions.

“I like to keep the credit on the players, but this one, I need to give some credit to Hunter and his group,” Tourigny said after the game with a smile on his face. “I think they did a really good job.”

Utah’s nine successful coach’s challenges this season are the second-most in the league (Toronto has 11). They’re now 9 for 10, which is the fifth-best percentage in the NHL this season.

In other words, Utah’s video coaches have been among the best in the league.

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