SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Logan Cooley is determined to play in the NHL for the Arizona Coyotes this season, and his first chance to make an impression is in Australia.
Cooley, a 19-year-old center and the No. 3 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, is one of 25 Coyotes players who will travel to the 2023 NHL Global Series — Melbourne for two preseason games against the Los Angeles Kings on Sept. 23 and 24.
While deciding whether to stay at the University of Minnesota for a second season or sign with Arizona on July 27, Cooley probably didn’t expect his first NHL road trip to be a 16,400-mile roundtrip.
But he couldn’t wait.
“It’s going to be horrible. It’s not often you go to a place like Australia and play hockey there, and it’s something I’m looking forward to,” Cooley said Tuesday. “It’s good to continue to meet the guys and explore a new place and, obviously, get some games.”
Cooley will play one game in the NHL Rookie Faceoff on Friday in Nevada before the start of his first NHL training camp. And, he was sure, his first season in the NHL.
“I’m a super competitive guy. I always have high expectations,” Cooley said. “Coming in, I want to be an influential player. That’s my goal. I want to help this team win as many games as possible, I want to produce and I want to improve in this league. And I feel like I’m ready to do that.”
Cooley will join Australia with all of the Coyotes’ top returning players, including forwards Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz and Lawson Crouse, on a nine-day trip that begins Saturday and includes much of their training camp.
NHL teams typically bring 50-plus players to camp, but coach Andre Tourigny has his core group available immediately. For Cooley, that means working immediately with mostly NHL-level players rather than a mix of veterans and prospects.
“We’ve kind of got a head start on what we want to do, how we want to play our special [teams], how we like to play 5-on-5, what our fundamentals are and that’s a big opportunity,” Tourigny said. “We’re going to Australia and we’re going to have fun. All the boys will be with us.”
Cooley, who hails from Pittsburgh, has been an elite scorer throughout his career. He had 60 points (22 goals, 38 assists) in 39 games in 2022-23 for Minnesota and 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) for the United States in the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Tourigny and general manager Bill Armstrong are excited to see how quickly Cooley adapts to the NHL and how he fits in with players like Dylan Guenther, Matias Maccelli, Jason Zucker and Crouse.
“I want to see his work ethic. I want to know how much information he can absorb, how quickly he can adjust,” said Tourigny. “I want to see where the ceiling is in terms of teaching him, working with him.”