The two-time Stanley Cup winning head coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning and a product of Prince George will be representing Canada at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, according to Hockey Canada. For the first time since leading the national men’s team to silver at the 2017 IIHF World Championship, Coooper—the longest-tenured current head coach in the NHL—will be back on the bench for Team Canada.
“Jon is a world-class person, coach and leader. His impressive resume and success in the NHL make him the perfect person to lead Team Canada over the next two years at the 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Olympic Winter Games,” said Doug Armstrong, general manager of Team Canada. “Our management group is confident that Jon will proudly represent our country at two major events, and we are excited to work with him to assemble teams featuring the top NHL players in Canada.”
Cooper is the Lightning’s all-time leader in regular season games coached (879), regular season wins (480), playoff games coached (139), and postseason wins (84). He just finished his 12th season as head coach of the team. He has guided the Bolts to ten visits in the playoffs, one Presidents’ Trophy (from 2018 to 2019), and four Stanley Cup Finals (in 2015, 2020, 2021, and 2022), with the latter two years’ worth of hardware serving as a double-whammy.
He won the Calder Cup and the AHL Coach of the Year Award in 2011–12 while playing for the Norfolk Admirals (AHL) for two seasons (2010–2012) before moving on to Tampa Bay. He also spent a partial season with the Syracuse Crunch (AHL) in 2010. Later this month, we should hear the names of the first six competitors in the 4 Nations Face-Off, and we will hear the names of Canada’s men’s Olympic team at a later time. Participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off are NHL players hailing from the US, Canada, Finland, and Sweden. February 12–20 will see the seven-game series play out at Boston’s TD Garden and Montréal’s Bell Centre.
