The NHL’s expansion from one California team to three in the 1990s was a move bent on growing the game.
And as the Flames jet away for a two-game jaunt in the Golden State, you only have to peer at Calgary’s crease to see proof of that grassroots development.
The Flames are the only NHL club with an all-Californian goalie tandem, and Dustin Wolf and Devin Cooley are excited to head back to their home state - with the team’s dads in tow - for contests in Los Angeles Saturday and San Jose Tuesday.
Both ‘tenders have Bay Area ties, though Wolf - who hails from Gilroy - was a member of the L.A. Junior Kings when he was spotted - and drafted - by the WHL’s Everett Silvertips in 2016.
“It'll be fun,” Wolf said of the trip. “Anytime you get to go back home, it's nice. You see friends and family, people who've grown up with.
“It'll be cool to have the dads with us, too.”
“It's really special, and I'm really excited to see my family,” Los Gatos-raised Cooley added. “My family's still there, my dad, my brothers, my mom.
“A bunch of friends are going to come to the game in San Jose, so it’ll be really cool. I'm excited.”
It’s not the first trip back home as NHLers for either goalie - Cooley got his first handful of NHL starts, and his first win, as a Shark - but this trip together is momentous. A full-circle moment since Wolf and Cooley became the first Bay Area goalies to face each other in an NHL game, which they did at the Scotiabank Saddledome in the 2023-24 season finale, a game Calgary won 5-1.
For Wolf, it’s clearly an honour to represent his home state. And he wants to be someone that young players in California look up to, like he did to Sharks netminder Evgeni Nabokov and Kings goalie Jonathan Quick as a kid.
“There's not too many guys that have come out of California,” he said. “You know, (Thatcher) Demko comes to mind, there's a handful.
“The sport’s growing tremendously in the state, to have two guys from pretty much almost the same area, not too far away, it's pretty cool and you want to keep building so the kids in California look at that.”
Cooley, meanwhile, remembers a time when he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to play as a kid, as the sport started to find its wings.
“(Hockey was) super-niche. When my parents went to go to sign me up, they didn't even know if a hockey program even existed,” he explained. “So I think it was just starting up when I was getting started, and it's crazy to see how much it's grown and now, like hockey's getting to be a staple in California.
“Now it's not so big of a surprise when a guy from California has success, either in college or pro or junior or whatever. When I was growing up, it was pretty rare and now, you see it happen all the time.”
The pair head home not only as teammates, but as friends, too.
In fact, much of the speculation during September’s lead-up to the season was on just who would back Wolf up to begin the campaign, with Head Coach Ryan Huska commenting at the time that the personality fit in the dressing room was as important as the successful candidate - Cooley’s - performance on the ice.
“It's outstanding,” Wolf said of the newfound duo with Cooley. “You're never too sure of a partner until you get to know him and you're around him, and you’ll understand his character and learn a bit about him. Everyone sees him. He's just a happy guy.
“He puts things into perspective and I think he's been incredibly valuable for myself in terms of like, there's been stretches of the year where things haven't gone the way I've liked. You see him playing so well and you want to follow that up, but also just the way he thinks, the way his mind works, he’s very intelligent.
“It definitely puts things in perspective of, it's one day at a time and nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes you just need a little reminder of that.”
Check out this sneak peek of Cooley's approach to the game - in life - from Episode 4 of The Chase, which drops on Friday at 6 p.m. MT:
