ALUMNI REPORT
Jon Cooper
Head Coach — Tampa Bay Lightning
Former Green Bay Gamblers head coach Jon Cooper became the fifth person in NHL history to coach 1,000 games for a single franchise on Dec. 31 in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 4-3 overtime victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
Cooper holds a 0.597 winning percentage through 1,004 games, the highest of any coach in NHL history with a minimum of 1,000 games, and his 594 wins are the most by an NHL coach through that span with a single team.
The Prince George, British Columbia, native is a two-time Stanley Cup champion, a Presidents’ Trophy winner and a four-time Prince of Wales Trophy winner.
Cooper coached the Gamblers from 2008-10, guiding the team to a combined 84-27-9 record in two seasons. In his first season with Green Bay, Cooper took a team that finished in last place in the Eastern Conference of the USHL and transformed the Gamblers into one of the top teams in the league. Green Bay finished first in the Eastern Conference during the 2008-09 season but fell to the Indiana Ice 3-1 in the semifinals of the Clark Cup.
The following season, the Gamblers once again finished first in the Eastern Conference, and Cooper helped the team to a Clark Cup appearance against the Fargo Force. Behind a strong performance from future NHL winger Anders Lee, Green Bay won the Clark Cup in 2010 after defeating the Force in five games 3-2. Lee was named the Clark Cup Playoffs MVP, capping off a season that saw him score 35 goals and record 31 assists in 59 games played.
Cooper, the only coach to win a championship in all three tiers of junior hockey in the U.S., went on to coach the Norfolk Admirals to a Calder Cup title after leaving Green Bay, and was named head coach of the Lightning in 2013. In Tampa Bay, Cooper has led the Lighting to 11 playoff appearances in 13 seasons and back-to-back Stanley Cup titles in 2020 and 2021. Cooper won the inaugural NHL 4 Nations Face-Off as the coach of Team Canada last year and will coach the Canadian team in the 2026 Winter Olympics in February.
