Report: Flyers nearly landed top prospect Logan Cooley

2022 3rd overall pick Logan Cooley may not have his first NHL goal just yet, but he's off to a fine start with the Arizona Coyotes. He has six assists in his first 8 games and he doesn't look like he'll be heading down to the AHL anytime soon. All of this is to say that the 19 year old forward is an absolute stud with a bright NHL future.

Yesterday Cooley was on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast with former NHLers Paul Bissonnette and Ryan Whitney to talk about his quick start with the Coyotes, but admitted openly that he was almost a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. You may recall that the 2022 NHL Draft was the one in which projected #1 pick Shane Wright fell all the way to 4th overall, one spot behind Cooley. Juraj Slafkovsky (Montreal Canadiens) and Simon Nemec (New Jersey Devils) went 1st and 2nd overall.

Cooley relayed a story that about 20 minutes before the draft he had a meeting with the Flyers where he learned that the team was trying to move up to 3rd overall in order to draft him, but just couldn't make it happen.

From Cooley:

"I had a lot of great meetings with Arizona. So I thought that if I would get down to 3 that I'd have a good chance of going there. But I met with the Flyers about 20 minutes before the draft and I think they were trying to trade up, so I didn't know exactly what was gonna happen."

- Logan Cooley

As it happened, the Coyotes scooped up Cooley at 3rd overall, the Seattle Kraken mercifully took Wright at 4th overall, leaving Cutter Gauthier for the Flyers to select. Gauthier is still a blue chip prospect no doubt, but you can't help but picture Cooley in the Flyers' lineup this season. Gauthier still has at least a season left of development at the NCAA level this season and perhaps a season in the AHL in 2024-25 before Flyers fans can realistically expect him to make an impact at the NHL level. Meanwhile Cooley is in the running for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year.