Cooper to return as Lightning coach next season

Tampa Bay Lightning coach Jon Cooper will return for the 2025-26 season, general manager Julien BriseBois said Friday, shutting down speculation that they might part ways after a first-round loss to the Florida Panthers.

"Coop will be back next year," BriseBois said, adding that he hopes his coach's tenure would extend beyond that.

Cooper, 57, is the longest-tenured coach in the NHL, having been hired by the Lightning in March 2013. He led Tampa Bay to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021, as well as four Eastern Conference championships in 2015, 2020, 2021 and 2022. His teams had a .638 points percentage during that span, third best among active coaches with a minimum of 500 games behind the bench.

But the Lightning haven't advanced past the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs in three straight seasons, including back-to-back five-game losses to the rival Florida Panthers.

"It was our turn for a while. Now it's theirs. And it's our job to make sure it's our turn again," said Cooper after Wednesday's elimination.

Cooper is under contract through the 2025-26 season. BriseBois praised their decade-plus working partnership and said that he expected it "to go on for many years to come, regardless of how many years he's got left on his contract."

Despite his tenure, his roots in the community and his decade-plus working partnership with BriseBois, there was growing speculation that the team might make a change -- and that Cooper might seek a new challenge himself after his run with the Lightning had stalled. He has appeared on Turner networks as a studio analyst for NHL games.

Then there's the speculation about Utah.

Cooper has a friendship -- on the golf course and beyond -- with Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith, who once likened the Tampa Bay coach to fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso for his approach to the game. Smith told The Athletic in 2024 that he connected Cooper with coach Will Hardy of the Utah Jazz, which Smith also owns.

"I like his detail in leadership. So anytime you can get coaches to communicate, it's pretty awesome. They text each other, and it's a cool mentorship," said Smith.

But in the near term, Cooper will remain behind the Lightning bench. He downplayed the rumors on Friday, saying that the only sources worth paying attention to regarding his status were him, BriseBois and Lightning ownership.

"It's hard to see myself anywhere else," said Cooper on Friday. "Tampa's been home. For my kids, it's the only city they remember. I've never been a part of any other organization. If there's an organization better than this one, I want to see it."

In other Lightning news, BriseBois said it was "unlikely" that the Lightning will sign Michigan State forward Isaac Howard, winner of the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the best NCAA Division I men's hockey player this season. He was drafted 31st overall in 2022. Howard would become a free agent in 2026.

"He values the opportunity to choose the club that he believes is the best fit for him," BriseBois said.