BOSTON — Truth be told, Jon Cooper could just as well have ended up coaching Team USA at this level at some point in his career.
After all, he was an assistant coach on USA Hockey’s under-18 team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup tournament many moons ago in 2008 when working his way up the coaching ranks.
But Hockey Canada reached out first at this level.
That was back in 2017. The Tampa Bay Lightning had a rare non-playoff season, and the IIHF Men’s World Championship beckoned.
One year earlier, former Team USA Olympic general manager Brian Burke got wind that Cooper was a dual citizen and advised USA Hockey to stay on the coach.
“I went to USA Hockey the year before Coop started coaching with Hockey Canada and said, ‘We need to get this guy in the program before Canada gets him,’” Burke recalled to The Athletic on Tuesday. “The late Jim Johannson (legendary USA Hockey executive) and I spoke to him the next year, and at the time, Coop said he was flattered but he said his first choice would be Canada.
“We came that close to getting him for USA Hockey. We almost pulled it off.”
Cooper had already gotten word earlier that season from Steve Yzerman, his GM with the Lightning at the time, that Hockey Canada would be calling about coaching at the worlds. But Cooper still had to wait for that actual call from Hockey Canada.
As it turned out, rather amazingly, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey called Cooper about 10 minutes apart that day in 2017. Hockey Canada was first.
Cooper’s mother was from San Francisco, but he’s a native of Prince George, B.C., and has lived in the U.S. since attending Hofstra University. He also was part of the coaching staff for Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, which in many ways was fitting.
But eventually he had to fall into an international lane, and picking the country he was born in made the most sense. He’s a proud Canadian through and through.
There’s a framed picture in Cooper’s office in Tampa of his silver medal from that 2017 IIHF World Championship.
And from that moment, he has longed to lead a best-on-best squad.
He was crushed when the NHL pulled out of the 2022 Winter Games because of COVID-19 concerns.
“To be honest, it was devastating,” Cooper told me three years ago in the wake of the NHL pulling out of the Beijing Olympics. “I would be remiss if I didn’t use such a strong word. I look at the sport of hockey, the country of Canada and the marriage the two have and the passion the country has for it; the thrill of being named to that position. It didn’t sit lightly with me.
“I was genuinely humbled and honored to have that opportunity. And then to have it swept out from under you, it … it just leaves you empty.”
Would he get another crack, he wondered?
Finally, the 4 Nations came together. Followed by an NHL commitment to the Olympics in February 2026.
Canada decided it would only name a coach for 4 Nations and use the extra time to decide on the Olympics, but eventually changed course, with Olympic GM Doug Armstrong naming Cooper coach for both.
No-brainer.
“Jon Cooper is one of the best coaches that ever lived,” Wayne Gretzky told The Athletic via text message. “Glen Sather, Scotty Bowman, he is right up there with those guys.”
Jon Cooper lifts the Stanley Cup in 2021. (Mike Ehrmann / Getty Images)
He’s a two-time Stanley Cup champion coach who hopes to add 4 Nations and especially an Olympic gold medal to his mantle.
It’s been fascinating at practice to watch Cooper interact with captain Sidney Crosby and his other top players, as well as his star-studded coaching staff: coach Pete DeBoer from the Dallas Stars, Bruce Cassidy from the Vegas Golden Knights and reigning Jack Adams Award winner Rick Tocchet from the Vancouver Canucks.
That’s a lot of coaching IQ for one bench. How has it all worked under Cooper?
“It has been a fantastic experience,” DeBoer told The Athletic. “It’s been easy to check the ego at the door because — I believe I speak for all of us — we are all walking out better coaches for the experience. Not just X’s and O’s. How you handle situations, an example coming off the U.S. loss. What you prioritize. This only works if the head coach is inclusive and empowers his staff to run their areas while still being collaborative with the other great coaches in the room.”
Added Cassidy: “Coop has been amazing to work with and be around. Very collaborative for sure. It really has been a great experience all around.”
Tocchet says he’s been friends with Cooper for years and watched him work from afar.
“And then now to be able to be on the staff and working with those coaches — just the way Coop can delegate, you know, there’s a lot of moving parts,” Tocchet said. “I feel like he gives the coaches a lot of autonomy on certain things. You know what I like about it? He’ll digest all our opinions — he kind of walks away, and it’s almost like he’s thinking and then he walks back with a decision. I like that. It’s something that I really like. He’s very decisive, but he does ask for a lot of opinions and everybody’s information and he goes from there.”
Just like players have to come together in short order to form chemistry, the coaches have done the same, and it helps that Cooper is such a social person.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” DeBoer said. “Coop is a social guy, and a few beers at a local dive bar is also a big part of it.”
Tocchet laughed in response to that.
“Well, that’s one of the prerequisites,” he said. “And you know what? That’s where some of those decisions are made, whether it’s a dive bar or a restaurant where we have meals together. Whatever it is, he’s very sociable. After a loss, he’s not sitting in his hotel room. He’s getting us together, and I like that.
“It’s a new-day attitude.”
That positivity also has helped Cooper foster the kind of culture around the Lightning that makes it fun to come to work most days.
“Jon has had success at every level he’s been,” Yzerman, his former boss and now Detroit Red Wings GM, said. “He has a great ability to relate to his players and has his teams play a very enjoyable style of hockey, which they really appreciate.”
Rick Bowness was the veteran associate coach on Cooper’s staff when Cooper got the promotion from AHL Syracuse to the Lightning 12 years ago. Bowness used his experience to give the rookie NHL coach guidance.
“Any young coach who hasn’t had any previous NHL experience, not as a player or assistant coach, no exposure to the league, you have to learn how to get along with the players at this level,” Bowness told The Athletic. “It’s a different animal. Guys in the minors are all trying to get up. Guys in the NHL are all pretty secure and make a lot of money. So you have to learn how to deal with them. Coop has done a really good job of that, of adapting and getting along with players.
“The other job is managing the schedule in the NHL — when to practice, when to give a day off, when to push them. It’s all trial and error, but he adapted to the NHL really well. The hockey knowledge was always there.
“He’s earned this. He’s worked hard for it. He’s elite.”
Jon Cooper commands respect from the NHL’s top players. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Cooper wasn’t just along for the ride in the lead-up to 4 Nations. He was very much involved with management, including with roster selection.
“I appreciate what they’re giving me as an opportunity to help pick this team and not have a team just placed in front of me and say, ‘Go coach it,’” Cooper told The Athletic earlier this season. “Because I do think there is identity. How is the team going to play? What kind of identity? Are they going to take the identity of the coach? Or are you going to be coaching somebody that you don’t feel is comfortable in how you do things?
“The one thing is, everybody was aligned.”
One more win, and that vision for the roster will have been proven right.
Win or lose Thursday night, the bigger prize is on the line in 12 months. So much of what Cooper learns from 4 Nations will be put to use then.
But he has maintained all along that he saw 4 Nations as important on its own, not a mere stepping stone for Italy.
Pulling off the double wins this week and next February would be unbelievable, of course.
There’s a framed silver medal that needs replacing in his office in Tampa after all.
(Top photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
