The coaching accolades continue to roll in for Jon Cooper.
Today (Tuesday), Hockey Canada announced the Prince George product and two-time Stanley Cup winning head coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning will lead Canada at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
Coooper is the longest-tenured active head coach in the NHL will make his return to the Team Canada bench for the first time since 2017, when he led the National Men’s Team to a silver medal at the 2017 IIHF World Championship.
“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,” said Doug Armstrong, Team Canada general manager.
“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.”
Cooper recently completed his 12th season as head coach of the Lightning, and is the franchise’s all-time leader in regular season games coached (879), regular season wins (480), playoff games coached (139) and playoff wins (84).
During his time with the Bolts, he has led the team to 10 playoff appearances, one Presidents’ Trophy (2018-19) and four Stanley Cup Finals (2015, 2020, 2021, 2022), winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.
Prior to joining Tampa Bay, he spent two seasons (2010-12) with the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League (AHL), winning the Calder Cup and AHL Coach of the Year Award in 2011-12, and part of one season with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch.
The first six players for the 4 Nations Face-Off are expected to be announced later this month, while announcements regarding Canada’s Men’s Olympic Team will be made at a later date.
The 4 Nations Face-Off consists of NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. The seven-game series will take place Feb. 12-20 at the Bell Centre in Montréal and TD Garden in Boston.
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