Cooper set to coach 1,000th NHL game with Lightning

Jon Cooper became flabbergasted when the conversation turned to the milestone he will reach on Wednesday.

"A thousand games?" he told NHL.com. "Like, what?"

Yes, 1,000 games coached in the NHL, all with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

"It's too hard to even think about," Cooper said.

Before ringing in what could be a memorable 2026, the 58-year-old will end 2025 by coaching his 1,000th NHL regular-season game when the Lightning visit the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center (4 p.m. ET; The Spot, Victory+, KCOP-13).

"No way, on New Year's Eve?" Cooper said unaware of when his 1,000th game would be at the time of the conversation a few weeks ago. "Like, a thousand games, it seems like you're ancient, and I still feel like I'm one of the newbies in the League, I swear. That's going to be a weird feeling, man."

Cooper then started going through the lists he's about to join.

-- He will become the 32nd in NHL history to coach 1,000 games, and the fifth to do so with one franchise.

"How many with one team from inception?" Cooper asked.

-- He will be the third to coach 1,000 games with one franchise from the start of his NHL coaching career.

"Holy [expletive]," he said.

Al Arbour (1,500 with the New York Islanders), Lindy Ruff (1,285 and counting with the Buffalo Sabres), Barry Trotz (1,196 with the Nashville Predators) and Billy Reay (1,012 with the Chicago Black Hawks) all coached 1,000 games with one franchise.

Trotz and Ruff coached their first 1,000 NHL games with the same team.

Trotz coached his 1,196 with the Predators before moving on to coach 616 more with the Washington Capitals and Islanders. Ruff coached his first 1,165 with the Sabres, then went on to work for the Dallas Stars and New Jersey Devils. He's in his second season since returning to Buffalo.

"’Coop’ has been incredible," Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said. "You hear about it all the time that a coach's message gets old and he's the longest-tenured coach and still doing the same thing and guys have nothing but good things to say about him. I think that's pretty cool. Just his relationship with the players -- I mean, it's a grind, it's a long season, and him being able to walk in the room and you're not on your tippy toes trying to get around him when you see him, it's just a conversation because he's able to do that.

“Some guys don't have the opportunity to play every single game, and he grows a connection with them. You have the ability to go ask him anything. He's incredible at that, keeping a group tight. It shows why everyone has been so successful playing for Coop, because you want to play for him."

Cooper has been behind the Lightning bench since March 25, 2013, when he was promoted from Norfolk of the American Hockey League to replace Guy Boucher with 16 games remaining in the 2012-13 season. Tampa Bay has since won the Stanley Cup twice (2020, 2021) and reached the Cup Final four times (2015, 2020, 2021, 2022). Cooper is the franchise leader in regular-season and playoff games (155) coached and wins (594).

The Lightning have qualified for playoffs 11 times with Cooper, including every season since 2017-18.

"I think it comes down to leadership," general manager Julien BriseBois said. "That's the No. 1 quality you look for in a head coach, and I think it's the No. 1 quality you look for in a general manager. And Jon Cooper, the first thing I identified in him when we brought him into our organization in 2010, I felt he had really strong leadership qualities. One of them is he's very charismatic; he has really good people skills and he builds relationships with his players that go beyond the simple head coach, player relationships. He's able to convey to them that he cares about them, he cares about their well-being, and if we all buy in, if everyone is willing to sacrifice a little bit of their individual accolades, individual stats, we have the potential to get rewarded with something that is way greater, and that's a championship.

“Now that Coop has delivered on that, I think it makes it a lot easier to keep selling that message and for players to buy in."

The 2026 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series against the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Feb. 1 will be Cooper's 1,016th game, placing him 29th in NHL history. Provided his status doesn't change, by the end of this season he will pass Pat Burns (1,019) and Brian Sutter (1,028) to move into 27th all-time, 44 games behind Bruce Boudreau (1,087) and 59 behind Reay (1,102).

"To get to 1,000 games as a player, I marvel at that because I'm in the trenches, I know what these guys go through night in and night out, and I know the injuries they fight through, so to play 1,000, especially with all the competition that comes up as younger players after that, that to me is a remarkable accomplishment," Cooper said. "The difference for a coach is players don't get fired. You can get benched, sat, your minutes can go down, but you're probably not getting cut.

“But as a coach, when you look at statistics and longevity and stuff like that, I don't know what it is, but it's only a couple of years on average for the lifespan of a coach with one team. It's usually not a thousand games, that's for sure."