Why Devin Cooley is the most interesting man in hockey

CALGARY -- It has become almost routine. Calgary Flames goalie Devin Cooley turns in a stellar performance, earns a live postgame interview and turns what's normally a cliché-ridden exercise into a soliloquy on modern sports psychology as seemingly the entire sports world tunes in. Cooley's gems of late? First there was this on Oct. 18: "The problem with me is that I have a lot of fun playing, but when I start having too much fun, it [takes] me from an unconscious goalie to a conscious goalie, and my conscious brain is really bad at playing goalie. I have to let my unconscious brain do the work, because it reacts a lot quicker." And then a week later: "I feel completely in control of my mind ... whatever my mind throws my way, I feel I'm in a good state to handle. ...Even when I go home. I go home, and I'm not really thinking about much. I'm just reading with my rabbit and not thinking about much." Cooley was named the NHL's second star of the week ending Oct. 25, and his quotes offer a rare glimpse into the mind of an elite athlete -- and perhaps the most interesting man in hockey. COOLEY HAS A PET RABBIT, Tito, and learns linear algebra in his spare time. Before this season, he had already gone viral when, as a relatively unknown (and undrafted) backup goalie for the San Jose Sharks two years ago, he famously told media, "Nothing's really gonna matter. We're all gonna die." Dr. Michael Gervais is one of the world's preeminent high-performance psychologists. He hosts the "Finding Mastery" podcast, interviewing the likes of Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and author Malcolm Gladwell. He has worked with the Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks and a host of other organizations. Dr. Gervais is also, like the rest of us, captivated by Cooley. "I would love to have a conversation with him about how he organizes his life and his internal life to find the freedom and the joy and the absolute highest expression of performance," he said. Dr. Gervais explained that Cooley has found an optimal flow state where he can perform without his brain getting in his way. "The conscious mind is incredible for learning. ... It's how you gather feedback, it's how you correct and adjust," he explained, but, "it's a terrible place to perform from, because when we're thinking, we're not responding. ... If you're consciously thinking about where your glove should be, you're absolutely already late." That, Dr. Gervais explains, is Cooley's advantage. The athletes he has worked with are in that flow state about 20% of the time. Cooley, it seems, is in his flow state for far longer. "You can train your conscious mind to trust your non-conscious," Dr. Gervais said. That includes the drills that Cooley does in practice to work on different facets of his game that he might use when the bright lights come on. "Most performers, they get in trouble not because they lack skill, but because they think and overthink and then all that thinking crowds out all the automatic responses they've built for maybe two decades." Devin Cooley is the gift that keeps on giving. He joined @BParkerTV after securing his third win in a row 🗣️ https://t.co/uIWkmHsL9O — Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) October 25, 2026 Former NHL goalie (and now mental performance coach) Mike Condon joked that he wished he'd had Cooley's approach during his own 129-game career. Beyond his pro credentials, Condon has a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling. His outlook in his playing days was very different as he suited up for the Montreal Canadiens, Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators. "You don't need to be confident in order to play well," he said. "I never felt confident before any game. I never thought anything was going to go well. ... For me, it was all about courage, so facing fear and doing it anyways. If I had that, then I would be fine." He explained that there are different approaches. For some clients, tools such as affirmations and positive imagery work. "What Devin's doing [is] he's putting out another roadmap on the mental game other than just, 'Think positively,'" he said. THOSE WHO KNOW COOLEY aren't totally surprised by his recent success (and fame). Cooley's first pro coach was Brad Ralph with the ECHL's Florida Everblades during the 2020-21 campaign. "He asked a lot of questions, you could tell he was an intelligent guy," Ralph recalled. "One time I walked on the bus, and he was pecking away on his laptop, and I looked at his screen, and it was some next-level algorithm-type coding whatever. You could tell he's a smart guy." Of course, Cooley can also play -- and well. He was an unheralded free agent signing by the Flames two years ago. Since then, the Los Gatos, California, native has risen from projected AHL starter to essentially platooning with Dustin Wolf. Last season, Cooley was one of the league's breakout performers with a 0.909 save percentage. It earned him an invite to the 2026 IIHF World Championship. This season, he has continued his strong play and earned four consecutive starts for Calgary, where he has developed under goalie coach Jason LaBarbera, a longtime pro goalie and former NHLer. In that stretch, Cooley has a 1.50 goals-against average and 0.955 save percentage. "He really had no plan [when we signed him]," LaBarbera said. "He was basically playing off feel. ... He's a big guy, but he can move. He's an athlete, [and has] ability to react and recover when he needs to, and be big and patient when he needs to." LaBarbera and Cooley's teammates love those postgame clips. Defenseman Joel Hanley said the two have gotten into some deep philosophical conversations over dinner. Veteran Ryan Strome said Cooley adds an element of joy to the team. "I appreciate a guy that exhausts all ideas and options to get there," Strome said. "He comes to the rink, and he kind of says, 'Look at what we get to do for a living.' I think he's always got a smile on his face. That type of attitude is super infectious. ... For me, the biggest thing is that he works hard, he loves winning, he loves competing, and that's my favorite trait in a teammate." Condon sometimes shows Cooley clips to the younger goalies he works with. "When you're in the tunnel before you go out in the game is probably the most vulnerable mentally that you're going to be of accepting where you are and where you're supposed to be at," he said. "If you're there with these expectations that, 'I need to feel this way, I need to feel that way in order to have success,' you're going to put yourself into some psychological difficulty." Condon added, however, that Cooley won't quell certain stereotypes about the position. "We're not weird," he said. "We just have a very, very uncomfortable environment that we have to learn to cope with and it's fun to see how different people do that. Devin's one of those people."