Jon Cooper Winning The NHL's Jack Adams Award Was Extremely Overdue
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.
Lightning's Jon Cooper Gets Goalied In A Huge Game... Again
It happened with Team Canada at the Olympics, and it happened against the Canadiens in Sunday's Game 7. Even an excellent coach like the Lightning's Jon Cooper comes out on the short end at times.
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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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 2:59 PM.