Rumblings in Milwaukee as the 2023 Calder Cup Playoffs are Here

Whether he’s had a tough weekend or not playing professional hockey, Nashville Predators goaltender prospect Devin Cooley has reflected on how far his career has come since 2020.

The 25-year-old goaltender is now back in the Calder Cup Playoffs with the Milwaukee Admirals. He was a college free agent just five years ago at the University of Denver.

"“When I first signed with Nashville, my first year, it was the Covid year and I was sitting in my hotel room so excited to practice. We had no idea what the season was going to look like,” Cooley said.“When I first signed with Nashville, my first year, it was the Covid year and I was sitting in my hotel room so excited to practice. We had no idea what the season was going to look like,” Cooley said."

After 22 games in the ECHL with the Florida Everblades and two with the Chicago Wolves in the AHL, Cooley was in a position to start making a name for himself. He was just thankful to be there after signing a deal in September 2020.

“Last year was getting to the AHL & staying in the AHL. This year is more about making an impact. Every year you have different goals, every year you’re trying to go further and further. It is just extremely important to just look back and go dang I have come a long way & it’s just the beginning,” Cooley said.

The netminder is a pending unrestricted free agent under the group six category. Meaning Cooley hasn’t been on an NHL roster for at least 30 games. That would’ve qualified him to be a restricted free agent.

ESPN’s Kevin Weekes said Friday in a tweet that Cooley switched agents from Scott Norton to Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey.

"“For me as a free agent looking where the best opportunity is going to be for me to get to the NHL,” Cooley said. “That’s the end goal. Me and my agency we’re going to look at where we’ll have the best opportunity that gets the most amount of playing time & have the best opportunity to get to the NHL. Where that’s going to be I can’t exactly say yet. We’ll see what other teams are saying and what Nashville is saying. We’ll take it one day at a time & go from there.”"

Catching up with the Admirals as they begin Calder Cup Playoffs

Cooley was approached by Gold Star leading into the postseason & he’s been impressed with what they’ve come up with so far & the conversations he’s had with Milstein. Gold Star also represents forward Egor Afanasyev who has also been playing in Milwaukee.

Heading into the postseason Cooley compiled a 15-8-2 record in the 2022-23 campaign. Last season he played alongside Connor Ingram and now it’s Yaroslav Askarov.

Milwaukee Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor is excited to have Cooley with the 20-year-old goalie, but more importantly, he gets some familiar faces back going into the series against Manitoba.

"“We’re very proud and excited to see those guys go on and do what they’ve done,” Taylor said. “We feel and hope when we’re developing players and if we can just help them just a little bit to get them over the edge maybe that allows them to stay a little longer in Nashville.”"

The Admirals get Luke Evangelista, Philip Tomasino, Zach Sanford, Michael McCarron, Spencer Stastney, Egor Afanasyev, Mark Jankowski, and Kiefer Sherwood back after playing roles in Nashville to conclude the NHL regular season.

Between those skaters is 194 combined points this season in the AHL regular season.

“Both teams are close in abilities in how we play,” Taylor said. “They’re a strong heavy team that likes to play in the offensive zone and grind. We think we can do that as well.”

Overall the Admirals and Moose split their regular season series with both clubs going 4-4. Last season the Moose fell in three games to Milwaukee in the 2022 Calder Cup Playoffs.

Games one and two will be in Manitoba on Friday & Sunday while the final three games in the best-of-five series will be in Milwaukee starting on May 3.

“It’s not very obvious [to pick those games] it’s a very complicated process,” Taylor said of the playoff schedule. “It’s a little unfair for the higher seed to have to select it because who knows which way is the right way. For me, we looked at the history of the league & what the results have been. The percentages told to us to go the way we did so we did after we looked at the analytics.”

Tommy Novak’s Time in Nashville

The extent of Novak’s success was a surprise to Taylor as the forward scored 43 points in 51 games since Dec. 19. He was challenged ever since he was in an Admiral’s uniform and then made his opportunity count in Nashville.

"“Tommy is a very good skilled, very thoughtful player. Very methodical,” Taylor said. “We challenged him and as a staff we wanted him to lead the American League in scoring. Tommy would get 50 to 60 points down here even if he didn’t take a breath. We really wanted him to push himself to be a leader and really push himself to be chasing the leader table in scoring in the AHL.”"

By the end of Novak’s time in the NHL this season he had scored as many points as forward Filip Forsberg did before he was injured in early February.

Now the Milwaukee Admirals have their full attention on the postseason pursuing their first Calder Cup since 2004.