Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper could be a Hockey Hall of Famer one day. That's how good he is. And yet, he won the Jack Adams Award in 2025-26 for the first time.
It took years longer than expected, but Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper has won the Jack Adams Award.
The Lightning announced the news on Wednesday when Cooper was surprised with the trophy at Tampa General Hospital, which cut the ribbon on the new Coop's Catch for Kids Family Lounge that will benefit pediatric cancer patients and their loved ones.
It is the first Jack Adams win of Cooper's 14 years as the Lightning's bench boss, and the question isn't that Cooper is worthy of the award. The real issue is why it took until this season for Jack Adams voters – the NHL Broadcasters' Association – to deem Cooper the coach who contributed the most to his team's success.
Giving Cooper the Jack Adams is one of the most overdue awards for someone in the league.
Cooper led Tampa Bay to a 50-26-6 record this year, which isn't even in the top three finishes Cooper has steered the Bolts to. Getting to 50 wins this year marks the fifth time Cooper has led Tampa Bay to that win total or better in his career.
He has nothing to prove to anyone. He's the NHL's longest-tenured coach, taking the job in March 2013. He's a two-time Stanley Cup champion. He guided Team Canada to the 4 Nations Face-Off championship and silver at the Olympics.
Cooper's been the voice of calmness and sanity for the Lightning, and you rarely, if ever, see the man lose his cool behind Tampa's bench.
Cooper now has 1,043 games of regular-season experience as Lightning coach, assembling a record of 622-332-89. He's missed the playoffs only twice in 14 years, and he hasn't missed the post-season since 2016-17. That is the type of legacy most coaches would kill for – and Cooper still is only 58 years old. He's got plenty of time to add to his long list of accomplishments.
If the Lightning let go Cooper tonight, you can bet that, by early tomorrow morning, there would be a long line of teams waiting to give him their reins. All the guy does is win, and at a time in NHL history where the coaching carousel spins faster than ever before, Cooper's job security in Tampa Bay is a testament to his achievements with the franchise.
It's difficult to imagine another person as Lightning coach, and that's because Cooper has provided the results teams ache for.
It's also difficult to understand why this is the first time Cooper has won the award. The award goes to the coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success. For better or worse, the meaning tends to become "the coach whose team overachieved or improved the most from the season before."
The Bolts only had four more points this season than in 2024-25, for starters. He didn't win it in 2018-19, when the Lightning had a league-leading 128 points, 15 more than the year before.
Tampa Bay has had some excellent players now and over the past decade, such as Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Brayden Point, Jake Guentzel and former captain Steven Stamkos. A lot of that credit goes to the front office. But Cooper's managed to take this team to the next level and keep them there.
He at long last can cross off winning the Jack Adams as a career milestone – and he can now go about his business knowing that his legacy as one of the game's greatest coaches is more impressive than ever.
When he gets inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame one day, Cooper's Jack Adams win will stand out as one of his greatest achievements.
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