Jon Cooper has been hired for some very important events.
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper has officially landed two major gigs.
Hockey Canada announced today that Cooper will be Canada's head coach for both the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winer Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Team Canada GM Doug Armstrong had this to say about hiring Cooper for the jobs:
"Jon is a world-class person, coach, and leader, and his impressive resume and success in the NHL make him the perfect person to lead Team Canada over the next two years at the 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Our management group knows that Jon will represent our country with pride while bringing his winning pedigree to the international stage, and we look forward to working with him as we build teams with the best NHL players in Canada at two marquee events.”
It is not too surprising that Cooper is Canada's coaching pick. He was supposed to coach Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing before the NHL pulled out of it. However, he also has experience coaching Canada, leading them to a silver medal at the 2017 World Hockey Championship.
Given Cooper's immense success with the Lightning, he has undoubtedly earned these fantastic gigs. It will be intriguing to see how Canada performs with him behind the bench from here.
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