It’s a question Utah sports fans have heard before: Can the local team keep its young star around for the long haul?
This time, though, it’s not about the Utah Jazz. This time, the Utah Mammoth are trying to extend the contract of 21-year-old phenom Logan Cooley.
Cooley, once the No. 3 overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, and the Mammoth have been discussing a new contract that would keep him here for the better part of a decade. Hockey insider Frank Seravalli noted that Cooley turned down a big offer from the Mammoth already: an 8-year, $77 million extension that would’ve seen Cooley make an average of $9.6 million per year.
That’s big money in the NHL. It would make Cooley the league’s 20th-highest-paid player.
Cooley is not currently the 20th-best player in the NHL, far from it. To use the simplest possible metric, he was 67th in points last year.
But he is one of the most promising prospects in the entire league, one who has a decent chance of becoming a true star. That, plus a changing NHL, means that Cooley’s camp is probably right to reject the Mammoth’s offer above.
More negotiations are sure to come. The Mammoth want to retain Cooley. Cooley has said that he “loves it here” in Utah. And, thanks to the NHL’s rules regarding young free agents, Mammoth fans can breathe easier than their Jazz equivalents: Cooley will almost certainly stay in Utah for a while.
Cooley’s growing game
Since being drafted, Cooley has improved his production every year, first in hockey’s minor leagues, then with a 44-point season in 2023-24 in Arizona, followed by 65 points in Utah last year. That kind of promising trajectory at a young age — remember, Cooley is just 21 — means that projections of his future value are sky high.
See The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn model’s projection for him:
While Cooley’s net rating of +3.4 last season puts him in the solidly “good but not great” 71st percentile, other high NHL draft picks at that level of production tend to make leaps in their third and fourth seasons. Only one other forward put up better point totals last year in the NHL at age 20 or younger: 2023 No. 1 overall pick Connor Bedard.
In particular, Cooley was elite in the transition aspect of the game last season; rare was the NHL player better at exiting the defensive zone and entering the offensive one. Once there, Cooley’s playmaking and finishing talents also belied his age.
What’s left to improve? The most important aspect is the physical and defensive part of the game, which can go hand in hand. Cooley’s not much of a disruptor when it comes to forechecking, for example.
The good news? This is exactly the part of the game with which you’d expect a 20-year-old playing big NHL minutes to struggle, one we consistently see prospects improve at over the course of their careers.
Cooley could also see his production rise simply by being put in better situations: Being on a top line with Clayton Keller and Dylan Guenther would get Utah’s three best offensive players on the ice at once, but it wasn’t something head coach Andre Tourigny went to very often last season — only for 176 minutes in 37 games, per Moneypuck.
Cooley also spent less time on the power play last season than Keller, Guenther, and even Nick Schmaltz. Those three players were on the ice for over 70% of Utah’s five-on-four time, while Cooley was only on for about 50% of that time.
For what it’s worth, Cooley expressed his desire to continue improving in his third NHL season. “I’m motivated. I’m hungry,” he said during the Mammoth’s training camp. “I want to become one of the best players in this league.”
A rising NHL cap, a changing CBA
The other factor that Cooley’s representatives, Brian and Scott Bartlett, are undoubtedly thinking of is changing NHL conditions.
The NHL has a relatively hard salary cap — really, only long-term injuries allow teams to go over the cap. That means very different roster-building dynamics than those in the NBA, where teams can go over the salary cap for a slew of reasons, including keeping their own players.
That’s pushed down spending in the NHL and is one reason why NHL salaries are typically lower than those in other major American sports. But after years of a stagnant cap around the $80 million mark, the upper limit is now increasing at a major rate.
The cap for the 2025-26 season currently stands at $95.5 million. Thanks to an agreement between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association, we also have a good idea where the cap will stand in 2026-27 and 2027-28: $104 million and $113.5 respectively.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Hockey Club center Logan Cooley prepares for a face-off versus the Seattle Kraken at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
Obviously, the rising cap means that Cooley’s proposed contract would make less of an impact year over year. Take a look at Luszczyszyn’s model again: Cooley’s contract might be an overpay in the first or second year, but could be a real discount on his services in the final few years of his deal as the cap rises.
Cooley is also doing these contract negotiations in an interesting window before the NHL’s next CBA goes into effect. Right now, teams can sign players to maximum eight-year contracts; next September, that limit will decrease to seven-year contracts.
So what might come next?
The 21-year-old and his representation have (at least) two interesting choices here: The first is to take an offer similar to the Mammoth’s, but at a higher dollar figure, and take the most money possible over the course of eight years. That’s similar to what teammate Dylan Guenther did last year in a similar situation, though Cooley’s stock might be higher than Guenther’s was then.
They could also negotiate a shorter contract, in hopes of sending Cooley to unrestricted free agency sooner. In the NHL, players can become unrestricted free agents after turning 27. That would mean a five-year contract, similar to one Wyatt Johnston received from Dallas in March.
Cooley says he’s leaving the negotiations to his representation so he can focus on the ice during the season, and there’s no hard deadline for an extension to be settled upon.
“I’m gearing up for a season that, you know, I want to dominate,” Cooley said.
If he does, it’ll help his bank account, too.