Devin Cooley
Cooley is Calgary's No. 2 goalie behind Dustin Wolf, but he has started a lot of games early this season. How long that workload lasts is the open question.
Role
Wolf is the franchise goalie and Cooley is the tandem partner. The Oct. 15 beat-writer lines (Dwills via GameDayLines) list Wolf as the starter with Cooley behind him. Daily Faceoff's start notes (Oct. 3, 8 and 18) show Cooley starting at Vancouver, against Colorado and against Carolina. Yahoo/Heavy (two days ago) and the CBS/RotoWire item cover his Carolina and Minnesota starts. The Carolina start came four days before the Minnesota one. RotoWire has him winning a 4-1 game against Detroit on a Saturday, his third straight start. Daily Faceoff's line page was last updated Oct. 25, and its source game is Oct. 24 against Detroit. The page cut off during the goalie section. Cooley appears there, but I could not read the full goalie order or any split. I found no published start-share number for this season. RotoWire notes he logged a career-high 31 games in 2025-26 behind Wolf. It also says his workload could drop in 2026-27. Calgary's skaters are not a settled factor for him. Flames Nation (today) shows Sharangovich-Frost-Suniev, Farabee-Jones-Coronato and a fourth line without Backlund. Daily Faceoff (Oct. 25) shows Farabee, Frost, Coronato, Gridin and Parekh on the first power play. Daily Faceoff's power rankings (today) have Calgary at 4-6-0.
Cooley has been good since a rough opening. Yahoo/Heavy says his first two starts were 0-2 with an .818 save percentage and 10 goals allowed. He then stopped 34 shots in a 3-2 win over defending champion Carolina. He also made 36 saves on 37 shots against Minnesota, and the Flames won both games by one goal. Daily Faceoff's power rankings (today) call Calgary's power play suddenly the most dangerous in hockey. Its penalty kill has also been strong. He started three straight games with reported rest gaps shorter than his opponents'. That suggests the Flames lean on him more than a typical backup is leaned on. A team that wins close games with him in net has little reason to cut his starts.
He is a backup behind a goalie the team treats as its franchise starter, and his early-season sample is small and swingy. Yahoo/Heavy says his season save percentage was .898 with a 3.26 GAA through four games, after he surged. Heavy also says it is tough to keep that level up. Calgary has a losing record. Its scoring has been inconsistent, which the same article says puts pressure on Cooley. If Wolf takes more of the starts, Cooley's appearances shrink. A bad outing can also cost him starts. In his own words, after getting lit up in Colorado, the coach was not going to want to play him.
Where analysts split
The disagreement is how many starts Cooley keeps behind Wolf. One view is that the early frequency holds while the team is winning with him. The other is that it is a short-term burst and Wolf takes back the bulk of starts. I found no analyst piece that frames this directly. I am inferring it from the start notes and RotoWire's workload comment.
Injury: IR: assessed real
Lower-body injury, IR
On IR with a lower-body injury and a targeted return of Nov. 6, so he'll miss at least a week of starts as the backup to Wolf.
What would change this: Practice/participation updates as the Nov. 6 return date approaches
Research confidence: reported. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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