May 2, 2025 | 4:33pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com

LIGHTNING GM EXPECTS COOPER TO COACH “FOR AWHILE”

Jon Cooper

Even though rumours have suggested Jon Cooper could be moving on from the Tampa Bay Lightning, despite being under contract for the 2025-26 season, the veteran Bolts bench boss is not expected to be going anywhere else anytime soon.

“Tampa’s been my home,” Cooper told reporters on Friday. “For my kids it’s the only city they really remember... For me, it’s hard to see myself being anywhere else.”

Various reports have tried to link Cooper to the Utah Hockey Club, given his personal relationship with owner Ryan Smith, but that may end up simply being a fantasy.

“I am appreciative and grateful for our partnership, and I expect it to go on for many years to come regardless of how many years he’s got left on his contract,” Lightning GM Julien BriseBois said. “When this contract ends, my expectation is he’s going to sign another one and he’s going to be here for awhile.”

Cooper is the NHL’s longest tenured head coach since being hired in March 2013. He won two Stanley Cup championships with the Bolts in 2020 and 2021, and is 39 games shy of coaching 1,000 NHL regular-season games, all with Tampa Bay.

TFP reported earlier in the week that Lightning assistant coaches Jeff Blashill and Jeff Halpern are under consideration for some of the vacant head coach positions across the NHL. BriseBois indicated that unless one is hired for a Head Coach role on another club, he expects the entire coaching staff to be back for the 2025-26 campaign.