Controversial Stanley Cup winner Matt Cooke joins the ECHL as coach of the Newfoundland Growlers, with on-ice success being only one goal for the grizzled vet.
Matt Cooke understands the assignment.
A veteran of over 1,000 National Hockey League games, the gritty, and at times controversial figure fields questions from media ahead of training camp with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, the former Kelly Cup winners who brought on the Stanley Cup-winning enforcer as their fourth-ever head coach this past weekend.
Armed with a three-prong approach to win on the ice, in development, and in the community, Cooke has made his intentions plain: to act as an open book, a welcome face and bent ear for the city of St. John’s and the players who will seek to sit under the learning tree of an athlete who has been to the dance.
“I have an identity that is an ideology,” Cooke shared during a one-on-one with The Hockey News. “I think it's very important, from a development standpoint, that our verbiage aligns with what the (Toronto) Marlies are doing. It's our job to make sure that we prepare. Even though we want to win and we're going to play a certain way and win a lot of games, it’s also our job to prepare these players for when they get their shot.
"When we send them up, they're in the best place possible to go there and be successful, right? Because our job is to develop. And that's why I said I want to win in the community. I think it's uber important, especially in a town like St. John's. I want to win in development. I want guys when they go up, I want them to make it. And I want to win games. And I think that all three of those can be done in the same realm.”
For the 45-year-old Belleville native, the move was a linear and natural progression of his work at the high school level, as well as his two and a half years spent as Executive Director of the TPH Academy in Minnesota.
But beneath the surface, Matt Cooke is on a journey of redemption and personal reclamation as much as a pre-destined path to manning NHL benches.
“I was doing everything from on-ice instruction to budgets to communication with families, to culture in the classroom. I mean the whole gamut, at two locations. And it gave me purpose. It truly did,” Cooke explained of his work with the TPH Academy in Minnesota, which came to an abrupt end when he received a call from Marlies/Growlers General Manager Ryan Hardy three weeks ago.
“I'm super grateful, A, that he was willing to give me a chance, but B, that he was willing to learn about me as a coach,” Cooke says of Hardy, admitting that, in the social media age, it’s easy to be swayed by the loud few.
“As you've seen, it's very easy for people to succumb to media and social media, and that's been something I've dealt with my entire career. But deep down inside, the people who know me and truly know me know that the player is a complete reiteration of, I guess, a different rendition of who I am as a person, and who I am as a coach. And so I just needed someone to take a chance. Ryan is that guy. Ryan's a guy that really took a chance on me, and I'm thankful for it.”
For many, Cooke’s reputation as an on-ice instigator precedes him. Owner of numerous NHL suspensions and over 1,100 career penalty minutes, the man who was dubbed as a pest by both press and fans alike believes his past on-ice indiscretions could indeed have affected his navigation of life off the ice.
“Well, I wouldn't know because I wouldn't have the information, but I would guess that is the truth,” he said when asked if he believes his history and play style affected potential employment. “If I had to put my objectivity hat on? I'm sure that's why when I send resumes and my application I didn't get a callback.”
The Matt Cooke set to man the rudder of the Growlers in 2023-24 is an admittedly different man in all but name.
He’s sat under the learning tree of some of the best the sport has to offer, names like Burke, Bylsma, Yeo, and Vigneault, soaking in wisdom, and riding the rigors of 15 years in the bigs. He hopes to be able to impart a fraction of what he’s learned to his locker room.
“I believe coaching is built on trust. Dan Bylsma invested in me and earned my trust and helped me get better at the end of my career and in the latter years of my career. For me, working with the younger age group really taught me patience, and taught me the importance of having the ability to articulate in multiple ways, because everybody hears differently. Player X needs to hear something one way, Player Y needs it completely different for the same result,” he explains.
“Working with the younger group really helped me with patience, on putting the onus not on the player but on me to make sure that I communicate correctly. And I think that's going to be a valuable skill as we transition into professional players because I understand the game at the highest levels. I spent 1,046 games there, right? So I know what it takes. I know all the little tricks and how to help play the game at higher levels. And I'm excited about the ability to give high-level information to players that can receive it.”
A husband and father of three, Cooke has endeavored to give back to a game that has given much to him and his family over the years.
Investing in the community, and diving into philanthropic and charitable efforts, are a cornerstone of his coaching mantra. Time, not money, is the most precious commodity we keep, he says, recalling a moment in his 20s when then Canucks GM Brian Burke urged the rookie to visit a local children’s hospital.
“I walked out and I was like, ‘That was amazing. I look at the nurse and she's crying. And I was like ‘What, did I do something wrong?’ And she said that 15 minutes before I got there, that family got terminal news about their kid. And for 30 minutes they didn't think about it. And that's what gives me the chills,” he recalls, impassioned.
“It gives me the chills because it's not about money. You know, I was in a position where just taking time out of my day could go and lift somebody up. That's what I want these players to understand. They have the ability to lift people up and it's powerful. It truly is. We're here for a greater purpose, right? We truly are.”
On the ice, Cooke, alongside newly minted development coach – and fellow noted tough-guy Adam Pardy – aims to instill a winning culture. The end goal, while multi-tiered, remains the same: to win it all and raise Kelly’s Cup in June.
“Well, I think you're either crazy or flat-out lying if you say you don't want to win. So there's no other answer than the goal is to win. The goal is to bring the Kelly Cup back to Newfoundland. It's my job to make sure the players are prepared and develop over the course of the season to give us a chance to do that in the playoffs," he says.
“I haven't watched every game and I haven't been through it, but everything has to be right. From that room (gesturing to the locker room) they’ve got to be right. The coaching staff has got to be right. Management and leadership have got to be right. It's a wholesome thing, but I'd be lying to you if I said I don't have intentions of bringing the Kelly Cup back here in June.”