Flames sign Cooley to two-year extension

Devin Cooley’s stock has risen considerably over the past couple of months.

On Tuesday morning, that was reinforced with a new two-year contract extension from the Calgary Flames. The Flames backup goaltender’s new deal has an average annual value of US$1.35 million.

It’s a no-brainer deal for the Flames, but also sort of amazing when you consider where Cooley was at coming into the season.

He narrowly edged out Ivan Prosvetov for the team’s backup job behind Dustin Wolf and there were credible reports from insiders around the league that suggested the Flames were shopping for another option.

When the Flames opted to play Wolf in back-to-back games to start the year, there were questions about whether they felt confident that Cooley could give them a chance.

Those questions have been emphatically answered in the months since.

Ever since his first appearance of the season against the Utah Mammoth, Cooley has been fantastic.

In 13 appearances, he’s posted a 2.40 goals-against-average and a .917 save percentage.

The Flames are confident in the 28-year-old, that’s for sure. Confident enough to want to keep him around for two more years.

“What he did in Utah (in his first start on October 15), you come in in that situation and have a game like that, it cranks up the belief his teammates have in him, but it’s around everyone else around,” said Flames head coach Ryan Huska. “You think ‘Yeah, OK, this guy can do the job.’ We saw it for half a year in the American League, he was the best player in the American League, and now I think the work that he and (Flames goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera) have put in from the early stages of the year have made him ready for the starts he’s getting and is going to be getting.”

Cooley had previously only played six games in the NHL before this season, all with the San Jose Sharks. He signed with the Flames organization in the summer of 2024 but spent all of last season with the Calgary Wranglers, although he was called up to the NHL for one game but didn’t play.