Mammoth Having Tougher Time Following Footsteps Of Canadiens

The Utah Mammoth are having a tough time in negotiations with Logan Cooley, who is set to be an RFA after the season when his entry-level contract expires. He is currently making $950,000 AAV, but is expecting a large contract and a massive bump in pay, considering where the cap is going and contracts being signed around the league.

Frank Seravalli said, "They don't have any $10 million AAV players. They're trying to keep it within their own team structure, like the Canadiens. Unless there's a dramatic change in heart from the Cooley camp, that is not how this is going to play out."

Logan Cooley isn't a player the Mammoth are going to want to frustrate and would like to get him signed as soon as possible, but teams can't deny the rising cap. The Montreal Canadiens managed to keep all of their players under $10 million AAV and they are headed in the right direction.

Currently, the highest paid player on the Mammoth annually is Mikhail Sergachev at $8.5 million AAV, and Utah didn't sign him to that deal, they traded for him. Clayton Keller, the team's best player, only makes $7.15 million AAV, but that's not a fair comparison considering he's a winger and is in his 6th year of the contract. He is going to get over $10 million per year when he resigns.

The difference is that Cooley is 21 years old, which, while being impressive that he has back-to-back 20-goal seasons and put up 65 points in 75 games last season, there might not be enough there to justify such a big contract right out of the gates. A comparable, Frank Nazar, signed for $6.6 million AAV long-term, and he's playing better than Cooley.

More and more players are going to start getting into the $10 million AAV range and the Mammoth have to keep up. While signing Cooley for that amount will set a standard, they have a few core players locked in around the $7-8 million AAV mark. That's probably where Utah is at and Cooley is well over $10 million AAV as a number one center.