A few of the parallels within the crease for the Calgary Wranglers are a bit eerie.
Hails from Northern California. Unheralded. At or close to the highest of the AHL’s goaltending charts. And carrying the Wranglers to the highest of the league standings.
Dustin Wolf is within the NHL with the Calgary Flames following probably the greatest three-year stretches within the AHL’s 88th season. Devin Cooley, Wolf’s successor and California counterpart, continues to be attempting to navigate that very same path to an NHL crease sometime. Regardless of a standout WHL profession with the Everett Silvertips, Wolf barely managed to get drafted. He went 4 spots from the underside of the 2019 NHL Draft to the Flames, the final goaltender taken that 12 months. Too small to ever have a lot of a profession so went the pondering.
Turning professional with the Flames’ former AHL affiliate, the Stockton Warmth, in 2021-22, Wolf arrived having simply been named the WHL’s high goaltender in back-to-back seasons. He had gained a gold medal representing america on the World Junior Championship. However return to February 2021. That’s when the Warmth had simply relocated to Calgary for the AHL’s abbreviated pandemic season. Because the WHL had not opened play but, Wolf had an opportunity to take a flip in internet. That afternoon of Feb. 21, 2021 inside empty Scotiabank Saddledome, the Toronto Marlies bombarded Wolf with 5 objectives on 11 pictures and chased him eight minutes into the second interval.
Two nights later in opposition to those self same Marlies, nevertheless, Wolf turned in a 36-save win. One other victory adopted earlier than Wolf needed to return to Everett. When the next fall arrived, he started to place collectively probably the greatest single-season performances in league historical past. Main the league with 33 wins, he gained spots on the AHL All-Rookie Workforce, was an AHL First All-Star Workforce choice, and captured the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award because the league’s high netminder as he took the Warmth to the Western Convention Finals.
2024 Calgary Wranglers vs San Jose Barracuda
A 12 months later with Flames prospects now full-time in Calgary enjoying because the Wranglers, Wolf carried the staff to a first-place regular-season end, once more took the Bastien {hardware}, and added the Les Cunningham Award because the league’s most precious participant. That made the primary goaltender to be named AHL MVP since 2004.
For an encore in 2023-24, he divided his time between the Flames and Wranglers and put collectively one other standout physique of labor on the AHL stage whereas beginning to set up himself as somebody in a position to change into a full-time NHL possibility in internet. The Flames noticed sufficient to ship Jacob Markström to the New Jersey Devils this previous June and go together with a Wolf-Dan Vladar duo.
With Markström’s departure and Wolf’s promotion, nevertheless, the group wanted goaltending assist. In order that they turned to Cooley, a 27-year-old and somebody who had already handed by way of three AHL golf equipment earlier than signing a two-year cope with the Flames proper after free company opened July 1.
What had been Wolf’s AHL crease now belongs to Cooley, who comes from Los Gatos, Calif., simply south of San Jose and a bit greater than half-hour away from Wolf’s hometown of Gilroy. And if Wolf got here to the Calgary group needing to point out that he may change into way more than a seventh-round decide, he a minimum of had been drafted. Cooley was not. He cycled by way of the USHL, NAHL, and BCHL earlier than arriving in 2017 on the College of Denver, the place he spent three seasons however solely appeared in 32 video games being caught behind Tanner Jaillet, Filip Larsson, and Magnus Chrona.
He turned professional in 2020-21, going to the ECHL with the Florida Everblades. Then got here a leap as much as the Milwaukee Admirals, however first there was Connor Ingram, who was placing the final touches on his AHL profession in 2021-22 earlier than shifting to the NHL. A 12 months later with the Admirals, there was first-round decide Yaroslav Askarov’s arrival. So Cooley went to the Buffalo Sabres final season, however with the Sabres attempting to type out their goaltending selections, Devon Levi’s ascent, and a crowded image with the Rochester People, Cooley solely bought into 14 video games on the AHL stage. A commerce to the San Jose Sharks final March on the NHL commerce deadline gave Cooley an opportunity to salvage one thing from the season. The very modest return for the Sabres? A seventh-round decide.
By that time the Sharks had began to close the tip of an eventual 19-54-9 season. Nonetheless, Cooley made one thing of the deal that despatched him to his hometown staff. The Sharks saved him on the NHL roster, and his NHL debut arrived March 17 at Chicago. Then got here his first NHL win April 6. An April 11 go to to Seattle introduced his best second, a 49-save night time that took the Sharks to a 3-1 win.
However with the Sharks engaged in an entire organizational overhaul, Cooley jumped to Calgary when that two-year supply got here following the season.
Up to now it has been the precise determination. Measurement had been the knock in opposition to Wolf earlier than he disproved these critiques. That was not a problem for the 6-foot-5 Cooley. However confidence? Consistency? An absence of enjoying time definitely couldn’t have helped, both. These points problem loads of goaltenders attempting to interrupt by way of first as AHL regulars after which as candidates for NHL call-ups. He had by no means actually been the go-to possibility for an AHL membership.
With Wolf on the NHL roster and Oskar Dansk, final 12 months’s different Wranglers goaltender, now with the San Diego Gulls, Cooley confronted no such roadblocks this season. The Flames introduced in Waltteri Ignatjew to spherical out their AHL goaltending, however he was somebody with simply 10 video games of SHL expertise coming into the season. The message got here clearly that Cooley could be head coach Trent Cull’s number-one in internet.
Cooley has backed up that religion. His eight wins tie him for the AHL lead, and the Wranglers are atop the AHL as effectively at 11-3-0-0. They simply sliced by way of an eight-game homestand, going 6-2-0-0. Cooley closed out that homestand final Sunday, taking down the Henderson Silver Knights with 26 saves in a 4-0 win for his third shutout this season; 4 nights earlier he had stopped the Bakersfield Condors with 22 saves in one other 4-0 determination.
Cooley is a goaltender who has began to determine – actually work out – the AHL, not altogether in contrast to what Wolf did beforehand. After final Sunday’s shutout, his post-game feedback to the media credited Wranglers goaltending coach Mackenzie Skapski for mapping out a plan, which incorporates self-evaluating his work in a post-game report. He cited puck-handling as a key focus space.
“It feels very nice,” Cooley stated through the staff web site, complimenting the work his defenders have executed in entrance of him. “I don’t assume there was a single deflected objective on me.”
That work final week — 81 stops on 83 pictures in 4 video games — made Cooley the newest Howies Hockey Tape/AHL Participant of the Week.
Subsequent up is a two-game cease in San Jose that opens Saturday. It is going to be an opportunity for Cooley to play his first-ever recreation in opposition to the Barracuda, one of many prime challengers to the Wranglers early on this season. They’ll see a goaltender with a .954 save proportion, one which places him second within the AHL. His 1.46 goals-against common is third-best general. Calgary may break open the Pacific Division race by as many as 10 factors on the Barracuda with two clear wins this weekend in San Jose.
With Askarov now starring for the Barracuda, a match-up of the 2 former Milwaukee companions may very well be a deal with this weekend. That third shutout final weekend nudged Cooley one previous Askarov. After he picked up his Nov. 6 shutout in opposition to the Condors, Cooley had joked with the Calgary media about that statistical competitors with one of many recreation’s high prospects.
“I’ve bought to maintain battling as a result of I must outcompete him,” Cooley stated with fun through the staff web site. “I would like bragging rights.”
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