Many NHL players use the summer to slow down, train quietly, and get their bodies right before the new season begins. Few of them actually choose to keep playing games. Logan Cooley is one of the few, and footage from his latest outing is now spreading across hockey social media after things got a lot more heated than your average August hockey game.
The Utah Mammoth forward found himself in the middle of a brawl during a game in the IC Hockey 3v3 Elite League, a summer league played in the Pittsburgh area. Cooley first got into a scuffle with Artem Kulakov. The shoving continued and tempers flared, until Peter Laviolette III stepped in to defend Cooley. That’s when things really escalated. Kulakov and Laviolette dropped the gloves and started throwing punches, while Cooley eventually stepped back and let the other two settle the score.
Logan Cooley in brawl
Both Kulakov and Laviolette have ECHL experience, and Laviolette in particular is no stranger to the penalty box. Across three seasons with the Wheeling Nailers, he racked up 292 penalty minutes in just 110 games.
At 22, Cooley is already one of the faces of the Mammoth, with his eight-year, $80 million contract kicking in this season — which is exactly why fans got nervous seeing him mixed up in a summer-league scrap against a couple of ECHL tough guys.
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Once the footage started making the rounds, hockey fans didn’t hold back with their reactions.
“The last thing Utah needs is Cooley’s chippy raw nerve attitude to get him injured before the season starts. What is he doing?” one fan wrote on social media.
“Why the f*ck if you’re Logan Cooley would you be playing in this kind of thing lol,” another added.
“Why the heck is Cooley playing in a summer league with ECHL’ers who are trying to fight him?” a third fan wondered.
The IC Hockey 3v3 Elite League has become a popular way for pros to stay sharp in a much lower-stakes setting than the NHL, with Vincent Trocheck and Kris Letang among those who suited up this summer.
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