Logan Cooley wound up in an unexpected scrap this week, turning a routine summer hockey game into something a lot messier than anyone likely planned.
The Utah Mammoth center was skating in an “IC Hockey 3v3 Elite League” game in the Pittsburgh area when the tension boiled over. What began as a confrontation between Cooley and Artem Kulakov quickly escalated after Peter Laviolette III, a former Laval Rocket forward familiar to Canadiens fans, jumped in to back up his teammate.
From there, Kulakov and Laviolette dropped the gloves, while Cooley was the player who set the whole sequence in motion.
It’s not the kind of scene you usually see in a three-on-three summer league, where the pace is generally a long way from NHL-level heat. Cooley, though, is hardly in a low-stakes summer stretch. At 22, he’s heading into the first season of his eight-year, $80 million contract, a deal that shows just how much faith Utah has in him.
That’s what makes the timing so touchy. An unnecessary fight in the middle of August is the kind of thing a team would rather avoid, especially with a player of Cooley’s importance.
He wasn’t the only NHL name in the league, either. Vincent Trocheck and Kris Letang also played this summer to keep their games sharp.
In the end, the Mammoth got the outcome they probably wanted most: Cooley sparked the altercation, but he stayed out of the rest of it and let the other two players handle it themselves.
In Other News...
Brendan Gallagher Sent Canadiens Fans A Clear Message After His Exit
Brendan Gallagher is already talking like a veteran who knows exactly what his next stop should look like. After his move from Montreal to Vancouver, the longtime Canadiens winger said in an interview that he wants to bring a strong team culture with him and help shape the environment around the young players in his new organization. It was the kind of post-trade message that says as much about his role as it does about his reputation.
Gallaghers comments also underscored how much of his leadership style was forged in Montreal, where he spent years through some difficult stretches and came away with a clear appreciation for how a team is built beyond the standings. For the Canadiens, it is another reminder of the imprint he left behind, even as he turns the page to a Canucks group that will be looking to him for more than just energy on the ice. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens First-Rounder Already Facing An Early Concern Bruins Fans Will Notice
Montreals recent Russian draft picks are already taking different early paths overseas, and the contrast is hard to miss for anyone following the Canadiens prospect pipeline. Gleb Pugachyov, selected by the Canadiens in the first round, has been trying to establish himself with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod while getting his first taste of pro hockey in Russia, a stage where every shift matters and every lineup decision gets watched closely from afar.
The concern is less about long-term talent than short-term momentum, because development can look very different from one young player to the next. While some prospects quickly find their way into meaningful minutes and visible progress, others are left waiting for the opportunity to show they belong, and that uneven start is exactly what makes this stretch worth monitoring for Montreal. [Read more 🡒]
Canadiens Camp Could Force A Tough Samuel Montembeault Decision
Montreals goaltending picture has been messy enough that it is starting to shape the bigger decisions around the roster, not just the crease. The Canadiens spent parts of the 2025-26 season carrying three goalies and never really found a clean answer from Samuel Montembeault, Jakub Dobes, or Jacob Fowler, which only added to the familiar discomfort that comes with trying to keep three netminders in the room at once.
The organization has already lived through that path before, most notably in 2023-24, when the setup led to limited success before Jake Allen was moved out. With Dobes and Fowler viewed as the long-term options, Montreal needs a clearer plan before the 2026-27 opener, and Montembeault is the one whose place feels most open to debate as camp approaches. [Read more 🡒]