West Mifflin's Cooley: 'Feels like a dream' to be drafted by Coyotes

MONTREAL -- What was known for a long time is now official. 

Forward Logan Cooley, a native of West Mifflin, is now the highest-drafted Pittsburgh native in NHL history.

The Coyotes selected Cooley with the third overall pick in Thursday's draft here in Montreal. The highest-drafted Pittsburgh native before Cooley was J.T. Miller, who grew up in Coraopolis and was picked No. 15 overall by the Rangers in 2011.

"It still feels like a dream," Cooley said about what it was like hearing his name called by Arizona. "It's pretty crazy with all the mixed emotions I have right now. I'm super fired up to be Coyote."

Cooley was anticipated to be a top-five, likely top-three pick for several months leading up to the draft. He's known for quite some time now that he would be making Pittsburgh hockey history. I asked him Thursday what the feeling was like now that he officially has that distinction.

"It means a lot," he said. "I mean, obviously the guys that have come out of there like Vincent Trocheck, JT Miller, John Gibson, and to be on that list as one of the top guys coming from Pittsburgh is pretty special."

Players from the Trocheck, Miller, Gibson-era could be considered part of the Mario Lemieux generation. They were born in 1993, after the Penguins' back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, and got started in hockey at an early age as interest in the sport was skyrocketing in the city.

Cooley is part of the Sidney Crosby generation. Cooley was just a year old when the Penguins won the Sidney Crosby Sweepstakes in 2005. When Crosby spearheaded the Little Penguins Learn to Play program in 2008, providing free hockey equipment to children to make the game more accessible, Cooley was part of the inaugural Little Penguins class. 

Cooley looked up to Crosby then. His memories of that time are fuzzy. Crosby skated with Cooley and the Little Penguins, but Cooley was at the age where his primary concern was trying to figure out how to stand up on skates. Cooley -- despite being an Alex Ovechkin and Capitals fan -- looks up to Crosby now, albeit in a different way. 

"He's a big influence," Cooley said of Crosby. "I think having him in Pittsburgh and just watching how he carries himself as a player and person on and off the ice is pretty special. You know, you don't really hear about him getting into trouble with media stuff. He kind of keeps to himself, so it's definitely cool to see how good of a pro he is."

Cooley said at the draft combine earlier in the summer that he hoped to help cement Pittsburgh's "hockey town" status, meaning the city's reputation as a hotbed for producing hockey players. In becoming the first Pittsburgh native to be drafted as high as he was, Cooley has the opportunity to be a part of something special. He still has a long road ahead of him before he makes it to the NHL, with the current plan being to attend the University of Minnesota next season. But if Cooley is able to find success at the NHL level, we might see the "Cooley generation" come about as a result, with Cooley inspiring other Pittsburgh-area kids to try and follow in his footsteps. 

We're seeing signs of it already. Cooley is a product of the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite youth program. The program held a viewing party at the Lemieux Complex on Day 1 of the draft, and you could see the genuine excitement in the faces of the kids when they heard Cooley's name be called:

"That's something that people were telling me," Cooley said when asked about local kids being inspired by him. "You know, when I was a little kid growing up in Pittsburgh, I never really thought this would happen. So for it to finally come true, t's a pretty special."

It's a special moment not only for Cooley, but Pittsburgh-area hockey as a whole.