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The Truth About the Flames’ Goaltending

Originally posted on NHL Trade Talk | By Old Prof | Last updated Feb 23, 2026 10:02 AM ET

For all the noise around the Calgary Flames this season, one thing keeps getting tossed into the blender, whether it belongs there or not, is the team’s goaltending. When a team is losing, fans often love to point fingers at the crease. It’s easy. But in the case of the Flames, it’s wrong.

So let’s pull the two young goalies out of the Flames’ season wreckage for a second and look at how they’re actually playing.

Cooley: The “Where Did This Guy Come From?” Surprise

If you’d told me back in October that Devin Cooley would be such a steady goalie, I’d have been surprised. He bounced between the NHL and AHL long enough that it was hard to know what he really was.”

But here we are. Nineteen games played with sixteen starts, a .921 save percentage, and a goals-against that looks like it belongs on a playoff team and not the group he’s currently playing behind.

Cooley plays like a guy who grew up studying video in goalie clinics. He brings quiet movements, a patient stance, squares up early, and doesn’t leak goals. You get the sense he finally got a genuine NHL chance and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands.

It’s a small sample, but those are real numbers. What’s even better is that if you hear him in interviews, he genuinely loves being in Calgary. That makes a huge difference. And I think it pumps up everybody around him as well. He’s an engaging, happy goalie.

Wolf: The Young Goalie Carrying a Piano Up the Hill

Then there’s Dustin Wolf, the young star who’s been handed the keys to a car with three flat tires. He’s made 40 starts, over 1,100 shots faced, and still has two shutouts. The .896 save percentage isn’t pretty on paper, but if you watch Flames games, half the goals are coming off odd-man rushes, broken coverage, or turnovers at the blue line that would make a goalie coach weep.

Wolf plays the game with electricity. He’s athletic, reactive, and explosive. That style can win you games by itself, but when the skaters in front of him are turning routine nights into track meets, the numbers take the hit. This looks way more like a young goalie in a rough environment than someone losing his edge.

The Crease Isn’t the Issue That’s Keeping the Flames Back

Cooley’s calm. Wolf’s dynamic. Both are better than the Flames’ record suggests. And both, frankly, are cleaning up messes that start long before a puck ever gets near the blue paint. They see too many turnovers and too many high-danger looks. Too many nights where the goalies are the only ones keeping it respectable.

Give these two even average structures, and the stat sheets look very different very fast. The bottom line is that Calgary doesn’t have a goalie crisis. It has a defensive one. And the goalies are just the poor souls left standing in the storm every night.

This article first appeared on NHL Trade Talk and was syndicated with permission.

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