{"id":694911,"date":"2026-10-25T07:09:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/694911\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T07:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T07:09:29","slug":"panthers-rookie-cooper-black-is-tallest-goaltender-in-nhl-history-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/694911\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers rookie Cooper Black is tallest goaltender in NHL history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida Panthers goalie Cooper Black skated onto the PPG Paints Arena ice alone during pregame warmups on Thursday night, a time-honored hockey tradition given to rookies everywhere.<\/p>\n

It took Black fewer strides to make the memorable lap than most.<\/p>\n

Video above: Kyle Busch honored during Game 1 of NHL Conference Finals between Canes and Canadiens<\/p>\n

Call it one of the upsides of being 6-foot-9.<\/p>\n

Black made NHL history in his first career start when he became the tallest goaltender to ever appear in a regular-season game. Black is listed as two inches taller than Ben Bishop, Ivan Fedotov, Mads Sogaard and Mikko Koskinen, all 6-7. <\/p>\n

The 25-year-old from Alpena, Michigan, who started playing when he was 8 and had a 5-inch growth spurt between his junior and senior years in high school when he shot up from 6-0 to 6-5 and kept right on going, made 18 saves in a 4-0 loss<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Joe Sargent\/NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n

PITTSBURGH, PA – OCTOBER 22: Cooper Black #31 of the Florida Panthers warms up before the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena on October 22, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent\/NHLI via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s cool right, growing up, all the guys you kind of saw and watched as a kid, even as a goalie,\u201d Black said. “Cool experience to play against the guys, would have been nicer to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black, called up from Florida’s AHL affiliate in Charlotte recently after Jacob Markstrom went down with a shoulder injury, stopped Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Kris Letang with his blocker pad on a wrist shot about two minutes in. He also turned aside a breakaway opportunity by Penguins forward Rickard Rakell before giving up a goal to 5-9 Pittsburgh forward Nick Robertson, who beat Black to the glove side.<\/p>\n

Panthers head coach Paul Maurice praised Black’s development in recent years. Florida signed Black as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2024. Black blossomed last season in Charlotte, posting a 25-13-4 record with a 2.47 goals-against average and a .903 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Video below: Hockey player medically airlifted after suffering injuries during game<\/p>\n

\u201cA man that size, it takes a long time to grow into that body,\u201d Maurice said with a smile before the game, adding with a laugh, \u201cI think he\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Black became the first player in Savannah Ghost Pirates franchise history to reach the NHL. The Ghost Pirates are an ECHL affiliate of the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Black, 25, played seven games for Savannah during the 2024-25 season. He posted a 4-3-0 record, a 3.07 goals-against average and an .886 save percentage.<\/p>\n

He also appeared in 63 American Hockey League games with the Charlotte Checkers, compiling a 38-19-6 record with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.<\/p>\n

Before turning professional, Black played 60 games at Dartmouth College. He finished his collegiate career with an 18-31-9 record, a 2.82 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers goalie Cooper Black skated onto the PPG Paints Arena ice alone during pregame warmups on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[2662,12843,44359,34360,3361,62,57,5141,74019,436,5,1086,64347,55692,4,1488,63,118,100,74018,74017,53647],"class_list":["post-694911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida-panthers","tag-ahl-affiliate","tag-charlotte","tag-coach-paul-maurice","tag-cooper-black","tag-development","tag-florida","tag-florida-panthers","tag-floridapanthers","tag-glove-side","tag-goal","tag-hockey","tag-mads-sogaard","tag-more-news","tag-mpnd","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-history","tag-panthers","tag-penguins","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-recent-year","tag-tall-goaltender","tag-wtae"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117500298387171929","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}