Lightning sign head coach Jon Cooper to multiyear extension
The Tampa Bay Lightning have signed head coach Jon Cooper to a multiyear deal to keep the popular coach behind the bench beyond this season.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have locked up the coach that led the team to their first Stanley Cup Final since 2004, signing Jon Cooper to a multiyear extension Friday. The Lightning are struggling a bit this season, but there’s little doubt that the group as a whole has been more effective since Cooper took over the team late in the 2012-13 season.
Though the Lightning didn't specify specific term, Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times had the details:
Hearing #TBLightning extension with Cooper is two years, which would be through 2017-18.
— Joe Smith (@TBTimes_JSmith) December 4, 2015
The 48-year-old head coach owns a record of 113-70-23 for a winning percentage of .602. As noted, he guided the team through a difficult postseason in 2015 to get the Lightning into the Stanley Cup Final where they ultimately fell to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.
Cooper’s meteoric rise up the coaching ranks makes him one of the most interesting stories in hockey. Having not played the game at a particularly high level, he started at the bottom rung of the coaching ladder while practicing law in Michigan. From youth, high school and low-level junior hockey in Michigan, Cooper eventually landed a job coaching the Texarkana (Texas) Bandits in the North American Hockey League, a junior A league in the U.S. The rest is history.
It took 10 years for Cooper to go from coaching at the Honeybaked youth hockey program in Michigan to the NHL. That’s quick for any coach in any sport.
But the man has won championships pretty much everywhere he’s been. There were USA Hockey youth national championships and multiple state titles, two Robertson Cups in the NAHL, and the Clark Cup in the United States Hockey League while with the Green Bay Gamblers. All of that success came with Coach of the Year Awards at just about every level he’s been at, too. That caught the eye of Lightning GM Steve Yzerman, who hired Cooper from the USHL to lead the franchise’s AHL affiliate ahead of the 2010-11 season.
While in Norfolk, Cooper piloted the team to one of the best seasons in minor league hockey history in 2011-12. The Norfrolk Admirals won the Calder Cup in 2012 and by the next season, Cooper got the call to the big club to replace Guy Boucher. The Lightning will obviously hope he can add a Stanley Cup to his vast trophy case.
Since coming to the NHL, he was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award in his first full season with the club. Last year, the Lightning surpassed 50 wins in a season for the first time in franchise history. The Lightning then had to get through three of the NHL’s most historic franchises, including the previously unbeatable-in-Game-7s New York Rangers to reach the Stanley Cup Final.
With the team’s near-term future behind the bench is settled, Yzerman will have to keep working on the most important contract negotiation in team history. Steven Stamkos is due to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year and things are taking a little longer than anyone anticipated. Getting a deal done with the team’s captain and biggest star could set the Lightning up for many more years of success.
As far as Cooper goes, he’ll have to figure out how to get his troops to perform better this season. The Lighting are off to a surprisingly sluggish start with a 12-11-3 record. They’re sixth in the Atlantic Division currently and sit outside of playoff position.
