West Mifflin native Logan Cooley earned a significant honor on Tuesday, when he was named to the 2022 U.S. National Junior Team set to compete in the 2022 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship.
The event will take place from Dec. 26, 2021 – Jan. 5, 2022 in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta. Yearly, the tournament features the best players from around the world under the age of 20.
To make the team at all would have been a significant accomplishment. For Cooley to make the team at just 17 years old, the youngest player on the U.S. roster, only underscores the type of high-end talent he’s becoming.
Cooley, a 5-10, 179-pound center, has seen his draft stock skyrocket in recent years. The Hockey New recently projected Cooley as a top-five pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, which is which is scheduled to be held at Bell Centre in Montreal on July 7-8.
While Cooley’s hockey prowess has taken him all over, his roots were planted in Western Pennsylvania. He began playing hockey at Rostraver in 2008-09 as one of the very first members of Sidney Crosby’s Little Penguins Learn to Play program. As he developed, Cooley rose through the ranks as a part of the Penguins Elite program, which operates out of the team’s practice facility in Cranberry.
“The Pens have made me who I am today,” Cooley told the Post-Gazette in 2020. “Off-ice trainers are the best. Coaches are the best. Practicing three days a week, having two workouts, video sessions, that’s really where they made everything happen.”
Cooley, who is committed to Notre Dame, is currently enjoying a two-year residency program with USA Hockey's National Team Development Program in Plymouth, Mich. Cooley currently sits third in NTDP scoring with 30 points in 20 games. On a per-game basis, he’s the team leader in points.
Meanwhile, three Penguins prospects are slated to participate in the World Junior Championship. Both goalie prospects picked in the 2020 draft, Calle Clang (Sweden) and Joel Blomqvist (Finland), will represent their countries. Forward prospect Kirill Tankov, a seventh-round pick in the 2021 draft, will represent Russia.
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: December 15, 2021, 12:22 a.m.
