Jon Cooper won the 2026 Jack Adams Award on Wednesday, giving the Tampa Bay Lightning coach the NHL’s annual honor for the first time after years of coming close. He became the second coach in franchise history to win it, joining John Tortorella, who took the award in 2004.
The Jack Adams Award goes to the NHL coach judged to have contributed most to his team’s success, and this one landed after a season that put Cooper back at the center of the league conversation. Tampa Bay finished 2025-26 at 50-26-6 with 106 standings points, tied for fifth in the NHL, and earned a ninth straight playoff berth. It was the club’s first 50-win season since 2021-22.
That finish also matched the shape of Cooper’s career arc. He became the second-fastest coach in league history to reach 600 wins on Jan. 12 against the Philadelphia Flyers, then coached his 1,000th career game with Tampa Bay on Dec. 31. The milestone count mattered because it showed how long he has been doing this at a high level, and how much of the Lightning’s rise has been built under one voice behind the bench.
The award, voted on by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, had eluded Cooper before. Wednesday’s win was his third time as a finalist, with Dan Muse of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Lindy Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres among the others in the field. That history gives the announcement extra weight: Cooper did not break through on reputation alone, but after a season in which Tampa Bay again looked like one of the league’s most complete teams.
The Lightning’s statistical profile backed up the result. They ranked strongly in wins, goals, goals against, goal differential, road wins, regulation wins, comeback wins and penalty kill percentage, the sort of spread that suggests a team that was not leaning on one hot streak or one scoring line. The campaign was also described as injury-filled, which makes the record harder to dismiss and leaves the obvious question hanging over the award: which adjustments from Cooper mattered most in keeping Tampa Bay near the top all season?
For now, the answer is in the trophy itself. Cooper has the league honor that had escaped him through three finalist nods, and Tampa Bay has another season underlined by the coach who has shaped nearly every step of its modern run.
