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Deep dive shows just how good Devin Cooley has been for Calgary Flames this season

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
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Apr 7 2026, 8:48 pm
Deep dive shows just how good Devin Cooley has been for Calgary Flames this season
Sergei Belski/Imagn Images

If you were to pick an MVP for the Calgary Flames this season, you may very well find yourself selecting Devin Cooley.

That isn’t a sentence anybody had envisioned before the 2025-26 season had begun, but it’s exactly the case with just five games remaining on the Flames’ schedule.

After nearly handing the back-up job to Ivan Prosvetov in a rough preseason showing, Cooley has been nearly unbeatable since. The 28-year-old rookie sports a 2.63 GAA and a .913 SV% through 29 appearances this season. Keep in mind, the average SV% for an NHL goalie in 2025-26 is .896.

If that weren’t enough to convince you, a deeper dive into his numbers should. First, let’s start with goals saved above expected (GSAx).

Cooley currently sits 12th among all NHL goaltenders in that category with a GSAx of 27.88. He’s right near some of the game’s best, as goalies ahead of him in regards to GSAx include Logan Thompson, Ilya Sorokin, Jeremy Swayman, Spencer Knight, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Igor Shesterkin, and Connor Hellebuyck. Certainly not bad company.

It’s the exact same in regards to goals saved above average (GSAA), as Cooley sits 12th at 14.2. Once again, several of the goalies he finds himself trailing are regarded as some of the best in the game.

Meanwhile, as pointed out by Robert Munnich of Flames Nation, Cooley’s wins above replacement (WAR) of 2.93 is significantly higher than Wolf’s 1.99 last season. That is very significant given how impressed everybody was with Wolf’s rookie campaign.

Of course, let’s not get carried away and try to suggest Cooley’s rookie season has been better than Wolf’s. Remember: Wolf was just 23 years old. He also made 54 appearances, 53 of which were starts. Cooley, on the other hand, has started just 24 games.

The chance to build on his rookie season will continue for Cooley, as he’s set to start Tuesday’s game against the Dallas Stars. He’s posted a SV% of .900 or higher in 19 of his 24 starts this season, and will hope to keep that trend going versus one of the best in the Western Conference.

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