'Just The Coolest Thing Ever'

At times, Devin Cooley wondered whether a career in hockey was meant to be. 

The pain. The moving. The uncertainty about the future. 

Cooley has taken the long road to the NHL, no question, but this season - his first as a full-timer in the league - has made all the hard work, all the hard days, worth it.

It’s that determination, that passion for the sport, that’s made Cooley the Flames nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL player best exemplifying perseverance, sportsmanship, dedication to hockey.

And the goalie, who’s quirky personality has made him a media darling here in Calgary and in previous stops, was just being Devin Cooley when he found out he’d been nominated by the city’s chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association.

“I was reading on the couch with my rabbit,” Cooley said, because of course that’s what he was doing when he got the call from Flames VP of Communications Sean Kelso. “That's not even a lie. 

“I was like, ‘Oh, no way, that's so exciting!’ I was stoked, told my girlfriend right away.”

It’s a pretty cool honour for a guy that embodies that laid-back California personality, off the ice at least. His media sessions are unconventional, but endearingly honest. 

And he’s a popular personality. Take for instance, the fan that waited for an hour outside the team hotel in Manhattan last month for Cooley, wearing a hoodie bearing his famous quote: ‘Nothing matters, nobody cares, we’re all gonna die.’

He gave Cooley a gift package that included - you guessed it - rabbit food.

But it hasn’t always been this fun. And that’s why Cooley has earned this nomination. He’s persevered, from never being selected in the NHL Draft, to having the worst stats among goaltenders in the USHL, to walking on at the University of Denver. 

Cooley carries those hardships with him, literally. Inscribed on the back of his helmet are four simple letters, a mantra that he lives by every day.

“It's I-I-A-S, and it just says, ‘If It All Stops,’” he explained. “It’s from a song by Dirty South. It’s a good song, I don't really listen to it much anymore. But I like the meaning. It’s just like ‘If it all stops, could you say that you tried?’

“And basically, I just wanted to give it my all every single day and try to make the most of it and just continue to work really, really hard. And if it didn't work out, then at least I could say I tried.”

Last season with the AHL’s Wranglers, he tried. But again, he was forced to overcome adversity. During the first half of the season, he posted some of the best numbers in the league, but a mid-season injury derailed his campaign, leaving Cooley wondering whether he was cut out for the gig.

“That was one of the hardest years for sure,” he reminisced. “And I think it's because I didn't really know what was happening with me. Like, the first half goes, and I'm like, ‘Okay, finally, I know how to play goalie.’ I was like, ‘Wow, I'm finally playing to my potential.’  

“I came back and nothing worked anymore. It was like I was a totally different person. I’ve said this before. I felt like I was just like a ghost haunting the earth. It was such a crazy feeling. And I was trying to play on top of that because I'm like, ‘This is my first year of being a starter, I’ve got to make the most of the opportunity.’ So I kept forcing it and forcing it and forcing it, and it just got worse and worse and worse. 

“But in saying that, because of that happening, I spent an entire summer working on the mental side of the game, and working on understanding the brain, understanding neuroscience, psychology, performance, just like everything I possibly could to help out the mental side of things. And then because I did that, now I have the technical side of the game, my natural talent and ability, and now the mental side of things is probably the strongest it's ever been.”

And this season, Cooley has shone brighter than ever before. He’s played 30 of his 36 career NHL games in 2025-26, and following Thursday’s 4-3 overtime setback in Dallas - a night that saw him make eight short-handed saves in extra time alone - he ranks in the top five among NHL goalies in save percentage. His goals saved above expected rate - 27.84 according to Evolving Hockey - ranks 12th in the League.

Not bad for a 28-year-old rookie.

And while he might take time, quietly, to revel in the accolades, Cooley is a big-picture kind of man, when it comes to the real rewards of living out his childhood dream.

“I think the reward for me is getting to do this as a job, like, how cool is that?” he said. “I look at my friends and they're all complaining about working in finance or (being) engineers or whatever, and they're all very successful and very smart guys, but I'm like, what a different world. And even like I drive to the rink every day and I see everyone roaming around the office buildings, they all have their bags and stuff, and I see the construction workers, like, man, that's gotta be so interesting.

“It's just such a crazy world. It's so alien to me, and I just feel so fortunate that I found what I'm most passionate about in the world, and I'm able to do that as a job. That's just the coolest thing ever.”