It’s been a pretty remarkable couple of seasons for Devin Cooley in the Calgary Flames organization.

He signed with the Flames on July 1, 2024 as part of the annual free agent frenzy, slotting in behind Dustin Wolf and Dan Vladar on the organization’s depth chart. He proceeded to have an absolutely fantastic start to his 2024-25 season with the Calgary Wranglers, going 17-7-0 with a 2.10 goals against average, .933 save percentage and three shutouts over his first 25 appearances. He earned an All-Star Game appearance and was even generating MVP buzz in the AHL.

His season was derailed, massively, by a concussion sustained in the second period of a Jan. 10 game against the Colorado Eagles. Even after he was medically cleared and returned to action in late January, it took him awhile to feel at home in the crease again. He entered the 2025 pre-season in a battle with Ivan Prosvetov for the backup role with the Flames, vacated when Vladar signed with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Cooley won the gig despite his last exhibition outing being part of an 8-1 loss to Vancouver.

Cooley made his first start with the Flames on Oct. 15 and made 29 saves in a 3-1 loss, looking very much like he did early in his season with the Wranglers. His second start was Oct. 30 in Ottawa and he made 35 saves in a shootout loss, again looking very sharp. He’s continued on like that, with a string of pretty impressive outings in a backup role behind Wolf.

We caught up with Cooley prior to the NHL schedule restart after the Olympics. We were curious, coming off his rough second half of 2024-25 and the up-and-down 2025 pre-season, when he felt like he was playing the way he wanted to in net.

“I would say probably since the first game,” said Cooley. “I was always really confident in my game. And I knew once things just like kind of clicked, it was all going to be not easy, but just like I was going to be able to have success. And, you know, like the pre-season, we went in, there was just like a couple issues, a couple of rusts to like shake off a little bit. And we fixed those issues. And then it was like, OK, now I feel really confident. I feel really confident how I can play. The first game against Utah. Like, I think I showed that and then just kind of took off from there. And I think I’ve been thrown into a lot of different like situations and, you know, going for like a couple of weeks without playing or playing sick or playing on back to back or travel, whatever. And I think I have handled it really well. And I think that comes from having a confidence in my ability and knowing exactly how I want to play every single night and just just being consistent.”

Cooley was used fairly sporadically early on, starting three of the Flames’ first 20 games – along with making two appearances in relief. Then he got a run of games in November and into December, then he didn’t play for a few weeks because of how the Flames’ schedule unfolded, Wolf’s strong performances, and then Cooley getting sick.

For his part, Cooley remains pretty focused on learning and improving, even from challenging experiences.

“Yeah, every single failure, or I put it like failure in like quotation marks, every single time you fail at something or you make a mistake or whatever, that’s how you get better,” said Cooley. “That’s the only way you get better. You don’t get better by doing things the right way. Like you get better… well, you do, but, like, you learn from screwing up. Yeah, okay, that didn’t work. Let’s try this. Or why am I sucking right now? Something’s got to change or whatever.”

Cooley expanded a bit, reflecting on his challenges getting back to feeling at his best following his concussion last January.

“And it’s the same thing what happened with like my concussion last year,” said Cooley. “Like I had my concussion, everything fell apart. And I had a lot of issues like going on in my mind and with my brain. So then what did I do? I spent the entire summer learning about how the brain works and how I can improve my mental health. And that led into physical health and understanding psychology, performance psychology, like neuroscience, everything. And now I feel like the mental side of the game is my best quality by far. Whereas in previous years, it was probably one of my worst. And the concussion just made it so much worse. And so that’s just like a great example. Like every time you get lit up in a game, like, yeah, sometimes there’s not much you can do. But most of the time, it’s a sign that, hey, there’s some improvements to be made. And that’s what makes being an athlete so much fun and so exciting is that every time you make a mistake or something you don’t like happens, it’s an opportunity to grow.”

Heading into Sunday’s game in Anaheim, Cooley has made 19 appearances in net for the Flames, going 7-6-3 with a 2.27 goals against average and .921 save percentage – quietly among the best numbers of any NHL netminder this season. He signed a two year contract extension in late December, which will keep him in the fold through the end of the 2027-28 season.

Goaltending is a weird position. Along with pitchers in baseball, they’re the only individuals in team sports with wins and losses credited to them. So how much do wins and losses matter to netminders, and how do they know what to take away from their games in net?

“For a goalie, wins and losses, we actually don’t pay that much attention to. Like, the goalie department,” said Cooley. “Obviously, you want to win every single time. And the goal is to give your team a chance to win. But at the end of the day, you have to play the right way and give your team a chance every single night. And that’s all you can do. And if you play the way that you want to play and you felt like you did everything you could and you come out with a loss and, you know, that’s just the way it is. It’s a team game. And sometimes you’re going to play perfect and they’re going to the other team is going to make one great play and you’re going to lose 1-0 or whatever, you know. And other times you’re going to suck and you’re going to have an off night, but you’re going to win 5-4. And it’s just the way things go. And it’s a team sport and it’s a team game. And again, our goal is just to give the team a chance to win every single night. And I think I’ve done a pretty solid job of that most of the nights I’ve been, besides maybe a couple. And it’s been really fun, like, just going out to battle with this group every single night.”

The Flames conclude their California road trip on Sunday evening when they face the Anaheim Ducks.

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