Cooley (5-10, 180) was No. 2 in the final ranking of North American skaters. The center was second on the USA Hockey National Team Development Program with 75 points (27 goals, 48 assists) in 51 games. He also had 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in six games to help the United States finish second at the 2022 IIHF World Under-18 Championship.
Cooley is committed to play for the University of Minnesota next season.
"We're trying to evaluate how a player projects, right, so we can look at a hockey player and say this is what he is as a hockey player at this moment in time and where he's playing," Hughes said. "The players were playing in different leagues at different levels of hockey. We're trying to look at them and say, 'This guy is able to do this at this level. Can he do it at the next level, too?' So there's a hockey component too, right? There's a positional component. There's all these things that we're evaluating. Can you play at that position at the next level? The other part, and I think part of why 'Vinny' had this conversation with Shane and will likely have conversations with the others, too, is to understand it's hard to be 17-year-old and be under the microscope as Shane has and others before him."
The 2022 draft will be held July 7-8 at Bell Centre in Montreal. The first round will be July 7 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), and rounds 2-7 are July 8 (11 a.m. ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS).
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