Cooper Black is an American goaltender in the Florida Panthers organization and the tallest goaltender ever to appear in an NHL regular-season game. Cooper Black made his NHL debut on 22 October 2026, away at Pittsburgh, after going undrafted and spending two seasons at Dartmouth College. He is from Alpena, Michigan, and he does not think his height is the interesting part.
| Fast facts: Cooper Black | |
|---|---|
| Current organisation | Florida Panthers, NHL |
| Shirt number | 31 |
| Position | Goaltender |
| Catches | Left |
| Born | 14 June 2001, Alpena, Michigan |
| Height | 6-foot-9 per the NHL and the Panthers’ own preview of his debut; 6-foot-8 in the club’s 2024 contract release and its 2026 recall release, and at Dartmouth |
| Drafted | Undrafted in the NHL. Signed with Florida as a free agent on 2 April 2024 |
| Contract status | Two-year, two-way extension signed 8 June 2026, running through 2027-28, $1,750,000 in total salary at an $875,000 cap hit |
| Clubs played for | Charlotte Checkers, Savannah Ghost Pirates, Dartmouth College, Nanaimo Clippers, Odessa Jackalopes, Omaha Lancers, Maryland Black Bears |
How tall is Cooper Black, and is he the tallest goalie in NHL history?
The Associated Press put it carefully: Black “made NHL history in his first career start when he became the tallest goaltender to ever appear in a regular-season game.” The Panthers dropped the qualifier and called him the tallest in the league’s hundred-plus-year history. The difference matters, because the record covers goaltenders who have played, not every goaltender an NHL club has ever had on its books.
The number itself is not settled either. The NHL’s register, the Panthers’ own match preview and the AP all list him at 6-foot-9. The club’s 2024 contract release and its recall release both say 6-foot-8, as do Dartmouth and the contract databases. Four goaltenders shared the previous mark at 6-foot-7: Ben Bishop, Ivan Fedotov, Mads Sogaard and Mikko Koskinen.
Black himself is unimpressed. “I’m just another goalie trying to stop pucks,” he told The Alpena News. “I happen to be the tallest, but I don’t place much weight on that.” His head coach, Paul Maurice, was funnier about it before the debut. “A man that size, it takes a long time to grow into that body,” Maurice told the AP with a smile, then added with a laugh, “I think he’s done.”
What are Cooper Black’s career stats?
| Season | Team | League | GP | W | L | OTL/T | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-20 | Maryland Black Bears | NAHL | 19 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 2.58 | .916 | 2 |
| 2020-21 | Omaha Lancers | USHL | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.73 | .667 | 0 |
| 2020-21 | Odessa Jackalopes | NAHL | 17 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 2.87 | .906 | 1 |
| 2021-22 | Nanaimo Clippers | BCHL | 33 | 24 | 7 | 1 | 2.62 | .924 | 2 |
| 2022-23 | Dartmouth College | NCAA | 30 | 5 | 23 | 1 | 3.07 | .899 | 3 |
| 2023-24 | Dartmouth College | NCAA | 30 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 2.58 | .910 | 2 |
| 2023-24 | Charlotte Checkers | AHL | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5.81 | .789 | 0 |
| 2024-25 | Charlotte Checkers | AHL | 17 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 1.98 | .910 | 3 |
| 2024-25 | Savannah Ghost Pirates | ECHL | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3.07 | .886 | 0 |
| 2025-26 | Charlotte Checkers | AHL | 42 | 25 | 13 | 4 | 2.47 | .903 | 1 |
Completed seasons. He also won a Coastal Conference title with Nanaimo in 2021-22, led the BCHL in save percentage, and was an ECAC All-Rookie in 2022-23, a second-team All-ECAC selection, and a Ken Dryden Award finalist in 2023-24.
Black played exactly 60 games at Dartmouth and exactly 60 in the AHL across his first three professional seasons, and his goals-against average between the two fell from 2.82 to 2.37. His save percentage barely moved, from .904 to .903.
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When did Cooper Black make his NHL debut?
On 22 October 2026, at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, in his first NHL start. He faced 21 shots and made 18 saves in a 4-0 loss; the fourth Pittsburgh goal went into an empty net after he had been pulled, so three of them beat him.
He got there because Jacob Markstrom was hurt in practice, and because Florida had already called him up and sent him back down once that month. “I was just glad to get up there and get to learn the first time I was called up,” Black told The Alpena News, “it made the second time I got called up and finding out I was going to play a lot easier to navigate.”
The nerves never arrived. “I expected to be a heck of a lot more nervous than I actually was,” he said in the same interview. “I think I was just so excited that it didn’t even really hit me.”
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Was Cooper Black drafted?
No. He went undrafted and signed with Florida as a free agent on 2 April 2024, after his second season at Dartmouth. He had been drafted in junior leagues, by Omaha in the USHL in 2020 and by a NA3HL club in 2019, but never in the NHL.
The road there was long. He played in the NAHL for Maryland and Odessa, got one game in the USHL, then had the season that changed things: 33 games for the Nanaimo Clippers in British Columbia in 2021-22, a conference title and the best save percentage in the league. Dartmouth followed, and two seasons later Florida signed him.
What has Cooper Black done for the Charlotte Checkers?
Charlotte is where he has played nearly all of his professional hockey. He got a single AHL game in 2023-24, 17 more in 2024-25 with a 1.98 goals-against average, and then a full starter’s workload in 2025-26: 42 games, 25 wins, a 2.47 average and a .903 save percentage.
That season was not the plan. “It was a huge learning year, getting the reins a little bit earlier than probably the team planned on,” he told the Checkers’ own site. “But I feel like overall it was a good year and I learned a ton.” On what comes next he was blunt: “For any young guy it’s going to be consistency.”
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What is Cooper Black’s contract with the Florida Panthers?
Florida signed him to a two-year, two-way extension on 8 June 2026, running through the 2027-28 season. Per the contract databases it carries an $875,000 cap hit and $1,750,000 in total salary, with $250,000 and $275,000 in minor-league salary across the two years. His first deal, the free-agent contract from April 2024, was worth $1,900,000 at a $950,000 cap hit.
Two-way means the salary changes with the level, which has been the practical shape of his career: recalled, returned, recalled again. The channels for every Florida game are in our guide to how to watch the Florida Panthers.
Where is Cooper Black from?
Alpena, Michigan, a town on Lake Huron, where he started playing at eight and graduated from Alpena High School in 2019. He was Michigan’s high school goaltender of the year as a senior, and he is the first player from that high school programme to appear in an NHL game.
He has not let go of the place. Young players in Alpena watched his debut together at the local arena, and he described seeing a photo of it as one of the highlights of his day. As he put it: “I love Alpena and I’ve gotten so much love and support from the community that it definitely helps fuel me.”
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