COOPER, Colin
Current Team:	-
Jersey Number:	-
Position:	-
Height:	5-7 3%252F4
Weight:	159
Gender:	Male
Hometown:	Calgary, AB
Shoots:	Left
Date of Birth:	November 9, 1994 (29 years)

Player Profile : G – Colin Cooper
Always a Goalie
“When I was two, I wanted to be a
goalie.”
Some kids just know what they want.
For Calgary Canucks starting
goaltender Colin Cooper, all he wanted
growing up was to be a goalie. At age
two, he knew. He has pictures of
receiving his first pads and this was
back in the day when you still had to
print pictures out to see them.
Skip ahead a few years, he still wants
to be a goaltender. And he is one.
And he is good one at that. The born
and raised Calgarian became the
starting goaltender in his rookie year
with the Calgary Canucks Jr. A team in
2012-2013 and is now poised to shut
down the league’s top scorers and
backstop his team to the playoffs and
beyond.
Growing up, he played for Shaw Meadows
where he credits Kyle Richter for an
important piece of his development.
Working with a goalie coach who played
Jr. A before going to Harvard
certainly provided motivation to
follow that same route. He graduated
to the Buffaloes AAA organization
where progressed at the top level
before his first spring camp with the
Canucks.
“They showed interest right at spring
camp and gave me a red card (to be on
the team),” explains Cooper on the bus
heading north for a game. “It’s
great, I get to live at home and
play.”
Play, he certainly has. Last year, he
was in 43 games as a rookie amassing a
10-26-3 record that doesn’t quite tell
the tale of his season or development.
His 3.88 GAA and .897% get closer.
“It was an important learning
experience. I learned with how to
deal with more stressful situations
and be relied upon,” he says. His
glove hand certainly developed into a
puck-magnet.
He plans to use that experience to
help his team from the net out this
year. “I just want to be that wall in
tough situations, be reliable,” he
says confidently. He believes that
the team in front of him will be
better too, despite the fact last
year’s troubles were largely based on
having more injuries than the team has
had in thirty years.
“Already we’re showing a lot of
improvement,” says the starting goalie
that sees the team from a pretty good
vantage point. “As we mesh with
chemistry, we’ll get more wins. I
think for sure we’re a playoff team.
We can be the underdog story that
really surprises in the playoffs.”
He also had a good opportunity to see
the team come together during training
camp as he took a leadership role in
mentoring the young goalies vying to
back him up.
“Last year, Mangone took me under his
wing and I knew how that made me feel
so I wanted to do that for the guys
this year,” says the usually quiet
goaltender who doesn’t exhibit any of
the weirdness typically associated
with people who play his position.
“I’ll play big brother for a couple
guys. I like keeping it lighter.”