Cooper Black, at 6-Foot-8 the Tallest Goalie in NHL History, Makes His Debut in Pittsburgh

The tallest goalie in NHL history was not supposed to play this week. Cooper Black started it as the Florida Panthers’ third goaltender, was recalled from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on Tuesday, sat on the bench in Ottawa on Wednesday, and started in Pittsburgh tonight because of a puck. Jacob Markstrom took that puck in Monday’s practice and is out 10 to 14 days. Thursday is the second night of a back-to-back, Akira Schmid played the first night, and Florida Hockey Now’s game-day report confirmed Black gets the second one. The live game record put him in net from the opening faceoff, with his first save, on a Kris Letang wrist shot, inside two minutes. His first NHL start is also a league record, and it arrived as a scheduling decision.

Why is tonight a record and not just a debut?

Because of one inch, and because the mark below him was crowded. Black is officially listed at 6-foot-8. No goaltender that tall has played in the NHL before. The previous record, 6-foot-7, was shared by five goaltenders at once: Ben Bishop, Mikko Koskinen, Mads Sogaard, Ivan Fedotov and Dennis Hildeby, per The Hockey News and Heavy. Bishop held a share of it through a career that included three Vezina Trophy finalist seasons, which gives a sense of how long 6-foot-7 stood as the ceiling for the position. Black takes the record alone the moment the puck drops, and both Reuters and Florida Hockey Now confirmed before the game that he was the starter, not the backup.

One listing argument follows him around. Florida Hockey Now notes that the NHL now lists him at 6-foot-9, and adds that at that height he ties Zdeno Chara, Curtis Douglas and Matt Rempe as the tallest players in league history at any position. The reports that use 6-foot-8, including Reuters and Heavy, still make him the tallest goalie the league has had. The honest way to state it is the way the sources leave it: the record holds at either figure, and the extra inch only widens it.

How did an undrafted goalie get this start?

Through the AHL, and through one practice injury. Black played at Dartmouth, went undrafted, and signed with Florida as a free agent in 2024, per Reuters. The club gave him a two-year, two-way extension in June, a small detail that reads differently now: Florida had already decided he was their next man before there was a vacancy. This season in Charlotte he has a .919 save percentage and a 2.67 goals-against average, per Yardbarker’s report, and his last start there was a 33-save, 4-2 win over Hartford.

Maurice’s comments this week were about readiness rather than novelty. “He’s been good. He’s been good in practice. He looks like he fits. He looks comfortable. It’s the right time for him to get in,” the coach said, in the Reuters report. Florida Hockey Now caught the shorter version of Maurice on the same subject: “Big lad.” Both can be true. The Panthers are 5-3-2 and played badly in Wednesday’s 5-1 loss in Ottawa, where the night belonged to Brady Tkachuk’s first game back in Ottawa, and they need a competent start in Pittsburgh more than they need a novelty. Black gets the net because the schedule and the injury left one candidate, and because his Charlotte numbers say he has earned the look.

What does he walk into tonight?

A Pittsburgh team playing its first home game since a frightening week. The Penguins are 3-6-1, opening a three-game homestand, and this is their first game since Ben Kindel’s medical episode on the team flight out of Salt Lake City on Tuesday. Kindel’s diagnosis and status are covered on our Kindel page, which was updated today; he is scratched tonight, as expected on injured reserve. Arturs Silovs starts for Pittsburgh.

For Black, the test is ordinary, which is the point. A 6-foot-8 frame changes some things a goalie coach can measure: more net covered in the butterfly, longer reach on wraparounds, a different sightline problem for shooters used to picking corners over a smaller shoulder. It changes nothing about the first ten minutes of a debut, which are about rebounds and nerves. The league’s goaltending churn has already produced one unlikely starter’s run in New York this month, where Dylan Garand has been holding the Rangers’ net with Igor Shesterkin out.

Where does Black sit in this season’s goalie oddities?

He is the second crease story of the week on this site alone. Montreal lost Nick Suzuki for two to four weeks in a game that also turned on goaltending decisions, and Winnipeg’s season has been shaped by Connor Hellebuyck’s holdout. Black’s is the only one that rewrites a record line. Goaltender height has crept up for two decades as teams drafted bigger athletes and taught them to play low; the five-way tie at 6-foot-7 looked like the practical limit of the position, because a taller goalie still has to get down and across at NHL speed. Tonight is the first test of whether 6-foot-8 works the same way, with the caveat that one start in October answers almost nothing.

The record itself is a fact, settled by the listings and the five names under him. Whether the extra inch is an advantage is analysis, and the honest version is that nobody knows yet. Bishop turned reach into a career by playing deep and quiet. Fedotov’s size has not made him a starter. Black’s own claim will be made in Charlotte numbers and in starts like tonight’s, not in the record book he entered by standing still.

What happens next for Black and Markstrom?

Markstrom’s timeline, 10 to 14 days from Monday, points to a return around the end of the month, and Florida’s road trip continues Sunday in Chicago. If Black plays well tonight, he has a case for the Chicago start as well, or at least for keeping the backup job warm rather than returning to Charlotte the moment Markstrom is cleared. If tonight goes badly, the record still stands, because it was set by playing, not by winning. Either way, the next update to this page is tonight’s result: his save line, whether he finished the game, and what Maurice says about the next start.