At 13 years, Jon Cooper is the longest tenured coach in the NHL. During that time, he’s led the Tampa Bay Lightning to unparallelled team success. Postseason appearances in all but one season. Two Stanley Cups. Four conference titles.
Along the way, his players have won these trophies: Hart (MVP), Conn Smythe (playoff MVP, twice), Norris (best defenseman), “Rocket” Richard (top goal scorer, twice), Vezina (goaltender), Art Ross (top scorer, three times, OK, technically a fourth for a few weeks).
But with that resume, he’s never won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year — until Wednesday.
The Lightning presented the award to Cooper at Tampa General Hospital, where he was cutting the ribbon on a new lounge for families of pediatric cancer patients, which was funded by his annual charity fishing tournament.
“I don’t have any words,” a surprised Cooper said after the trophy was wheeled out. “I never thought this would be a reality.”
Cooper, 58, finished ahead of Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff and Pittsburgh’s Dan Muse in voting by members of the NHL Broadcasters' Association.
The tally was close. Using a 5-3-1 format, electors selected their top three coaches. Cooper’s overall lead was only three, 226-223. He led in first-place votes, 36-26, but Ruff appeared on more ballots, 67-58. Muse finished third with 199 votes.
“Ultimately for me, I think the coach is just a small part of it,” Cooper said. “You don't win it without a heck of a team and a goaltender and scorers and everybody to management and ownership. It's kind of what the whole thing is. It's an honor."
50-win seasons despite injuries, other hurdles
Tampa Bay’s 50 wins were the most by the franchise since its most recent Cup appearance in 2022. It was the Bolts’ fifth 50-win season overall, and it earned them the No. 2 conference seed in the playoffs with 106 points.
Most impressive was a 19-1-1 run leading into the February pause for the Winter Olympics, when they were in first place in the Atlantic Division with a 37-14-4 mark.
As usual, the team thrived behind scoring star Nikita Kucherov and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning also finished among the NHL’s best for wins, goals, goals against, goal differential, road wins, regulation wins, comeback wins, penalty kill percentage and multiple other metrics.
But the season was filled with major injuries for long stretches.
In November and December, three top defensemen — captain Victor Hedman, Ryan McDonagh and Erik Cernak — were sidelined at the same time. Despite those losses, the Lightning went 17-7-1 during the stretch as depth players stepped into larger roles.
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Hedman, McDonagh and Cernak all missed significant time during the season, while the Lightning also dealt with injuries to key contributors including Brayden Point, Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli, Nick Paul, Emil Lilleberg and Pontus Holmberg.
The team went 23-8-2 without McDonagh, 25-7-2 without Hedman and 8-2-1 when both were out simultaneously.
In addition, Cooper served as head coach of Team Canada and had to devote significant time to preparing for the Winter Olympics in Italy. Shortly afterward, he missed two games while mourning the death of his father.
Season’s memories include Ybor-inspired suit
Despite losing the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight year, it was a memorable season for Lightning coach.
He became the second-fastest coach in league history to reach 600 wins with a 5-1 victory on Jan. 12 against Philadelphia shortly after coaching in his 1,000th career game — all with Tampa Bay — on Dec. 31.
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And few will forget his Ybor City-themed white hat and suit, red shirt and gold bling on the bench during the Lightning’s comeback 6-5 shootout victory over Boston in February’s Stadium Series game at Raymond James Stadium.
“This is an individual award in a bigger team atmosphere but understanding that this is just another step between us getting back to the Stanley Cup,” Cooper said. “If this isn’t more motivation for myself and everybody, I don’t know what is.”
This marks Cooper’s third time as a finalist for the Adams award.
And he’s the second Lightning coach to earn the honor, joining John Tortorella, who is now coaching the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final. Tortorella was the Adams pick after the Bolts’ first Stanley Cup in 2023-24.
Close ties with TGH through J5 Foundation
In recent years, Cooper's charitable work has become closely tied to pediatric cancer patients at Tampa General Hospital. The Coop's Catch for Kids Family Lounge, announced in November, was funded through a donation from the J5 Foundation, the Cooper family's charitable organization.
The space is intended to give children undergoing treatment and their families a place to relax and spend time together away from clinical settings.
Through his involvement with the hospital and the annual Coop's Catch for Kids fishing tournament, Cooper has gotten to know many of the young patients and their families. Several of those children, now cancer survivors, were at the ceremony and rolled out the Adams trophy to the coach.
"So, in a way, it was me giving back and then somebody giving to me," Cooper said. "In the end, my name will be on this trophy, and I'm extremely fortunate to have my name on the Stanley Cup. But more importantly, to build this in the community and have your name on something that is affecting people that are going through tough times, that's what means everything to me."
