Jon Cooper Reacts to Winning the Jack Adams Award

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Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper reacted to winning the Jack Adams Award for the first time in his NHL coaching career.

In what was the closest Jack Adams Award race in NHL history, Cooper was given 226 total points, with Lindy Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres losing by just three points at 223. Dan Muse of the Pittsburgh Penguins was a close third at 199 points.

Jon Cooper Shares Reaction to Winning the Jack Adams Award

Speaking to NHL.com after winning the first Jack Adams Award of his storied hockey career, Cooper shared his reaction to taking home the honor.

While the Jack Adams Award is technically an individual honor, for Cooper, the honor is all about the team he had on the ice in Tampa Bay.

“It was a magical group and to think that we had one win in our first seven games, but nobody questioned what was happening, nobody questioned our belief in what we were doing. And then we slowly took off. There were times with doubt, especially when a lot of the players went down the way they did,” Cooper said.

“There’s no secret sauce. We’ve got a group and we’ve got a plan and we ultimately believe in bringing in good people. Are we perfect, any of us? No, but we have a foundation, a belief and a standard in how things have to be run.”

The Lightning finished in second place in the Atlantic Division with 106 points, just three behind the division-leading Sabres. The fact that Cooper had never won the Jack Adams Award in his career yet likely played somewhat into the voters’ selecting him for the honor. But ultimately, he took it home, as Ruff and Muse just missed out on winning it.

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Jack Adams Award Voting

Check out the full Jack Adams Award voting table below.

2025-26 Jack Adams Award Voting

		Points	(1st-2nd-3rd)
1.	Jon Cooper, TBL	226	(36-12-10)
2.	Lindy Ruff, BUF	223	(26-26-15)
3.	Dan Muse, PIT	199	(18-29-22)
4.	Jared Bednar, COL	66	(4-13-7)
5.	Martin St. Louis, MTL	50	(4-7-9)
6.	Travis Green, OTT	43	(4-5-8)
7.	Rick Tocchet, PHI	27	(3-2-6)
8.	Marco Sturm, BOS	25	(1-3-11)
9.	Rod Brind’Amour, CAR	20	(3-1-2)
10.	Glen Gulutzan, DAL	4	(0-0-4)
11.	John Hynes, MIN	3	(0-1-0)
t-12.	Joel Quenneville, ANA	2	(0-0-2)
	Andre Tourigny, UTA	2	(0-0-2)
14.	Ryan Warsofsky, SJS	1	(0-0-1)

(5-3-1 points allocation)

While Cooper is a terrific coach and you can’t deny he did a great job for Tampa Bay, it still feels like this is more of a career achievement award than what he did this year.

Don’t get it wrong, Cooper was great for Tampa Bay, as usual. But Ruff took the Sabres back to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, so he really should have won this award. The fact that the final voting tally was so close proves just how difficult an award it was for the voters to decide on.

Ultimately, Cooper gets the honor, one that just strengthens his Hockey Hall of Fame case. He’s already coached the Tampa Bay Lightning to two Stanley Cup Championships and four finals overall, so he was already going to go into the HHOF as a coach one day. But this award pretty much cements his case as a Hall of Famer if anyone had any doubt.

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