Jon Cooper

Jon Cooper (born August 23, 1967) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach. Cooper is the current head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning of the National Hockey League.

United States Hockey League
Cooper was the coach of the United States Hockey League (USHL)'s Green Bay Gamblers starting in 2008. He led the team in 2008-9 and 2009-10 to a record of 84-27-9. In 2010, the team won the Clark Cup for the league's championship.

American Hockey League
In 2010, Cooper was hired by the Tampa Bay Lightning to coach the Norfolk Admirals, the Lightning's AHL affiliate. During the 2011-12 season, the Admirals won the Calder Cup as the AHL's champions. Cooper won the 2012 Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL's most outstanding head coach.

For the 2012–13 season, Cooper became the head coach of the Syracuse Crunch, after the Lightning changed their AHL affiliation. In 65 games with the Crunch, Cooper led the team to a 39–18–3–5 record, the best in the AHL at the time of his promotion.

National Hockey League
On March 25, 2013, following the dismissal of Guy Boucher, the Tampa Bay Lightning announced that Cooper would become the eighth head coach in franchise history.

Personal
Cooper was born in Prince George, British Columbia. He played high school hockey at Notre Dame in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. He then moved to Hofstra University in the Village of Hempstead, New York, where he played four years of Division I lacrosse, and one year of hockey. He earned a law degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan. Prior to his career as a hockey coach, Cooper served as a public defender. Cooper started playing hockey again while attending law school, ultimately leading to Cooper's first experience coaching hockey at Lansing Catholic Central High School. Cooper would eventually land a job with the St. Louis Bandits of the NAHL, which would in turn lead to other coaching positions.

Cooper is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Cooper's mother was American, while his father was Canadian. Cooper and his wife Jessie have two twin daughters (Julia and Josephine) and a son (Jonathan).