On Wednesday, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Jon Cooper won the Jack Adams Award for the 2025-26 season. The Jack Adams is awarded “to the coach adjusted to have contributed the most to his team’s success”.
Cooper is the longest tenured coach in the NHL. He has been the Lightning’s Head Coach since 2013. Since than he has coached 1043 NHL regular season games, and 162 NHL playoff games. Cooper has a regular season record of 622-332-89 and a playoff record of 91-71.
91 playoff victories are good enough for the 9th most of any Head Coach. Cooper coached the Lightning to Stanley Cup Victories in 2020 and 2021. During his tenure, the Lightning also reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 2015, and 2022. In 12 of 13 full seasons with Cooper behind the bench, the Lightning reached the playoffs, including the past 9 seasons. The Lightning’s 9 straight playoff berths are tied for the longest active postseason streak in the NHL. In 2019, Cooper coached the Lightning into getting 62 wins, at the time tying the record for most wins in a season. Last season Cooper became the 2nd fastest coach to win 600 games. He accomplished this feat in 1,005 games. Despite all of these historical accomplishments, this is Jon Cooper’s first Jack Adams Award in his 14-season coaching career.
This season, the Lightning finished second in the Atlantic division with a 50-26-6 record, ultimately losing to the Montreal Canadiens in 7 games in the first round.