Lightning’s Jon Cooper second-fastest coach to 600 wins in NHL history

One of the best coaches in the NHL today has put himself in rarefied air.

On Monday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-1. With that, head coach Jon Cooper picked up the 600th win of his NHL career, becoming the second-fastest coach to reach the mark.

The only bench boss to reach that milestone faster was Hockey Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman. Cooper won 600 games in 1,005 contests, while Bowman reached the mark in 1,002 games, which he accomplished with the St. Louis Blues and Montreal Canadiens.

Cooper became the 25th coach to reach 600 wins in an NHL career. The Detroit Red Wings‘ Todd McLellan, the Buffalo Sabres‘ Lindy Ruff and the Anaheim Ducks‘ Joel Quenneville are the only other active coaches with over victories in their career.

Cooper has a career record of 600-319-86.

Every single one of Cooper’s wins came as the head coach in Tampa, a role he was hired into in 2013 after the Lightning fired Guy Boucher. The move came not long after Cooper guided the Lightning’s former American Hockey League affiliate, the Norfolk Admirals, to the Calder Cup the season before.

In his first 12 full seasons with the Lightning, the Prince George, B.C. native has led the team to the playoffs every but one, narrowly missing out on the postseason in 2016-17. His teams have made it to the Stanley Cup Final four times – 2015, 2020, 2021, 2022 – with Tampa winning it all in 2020 and 2021. Yet, despite his achievements with the Bolts, Cooper has never won the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year.

The 58-year-old will have a chance to add some more hardware to his mantle next month, as he leads Team Canada into the 2026 Winter Olympics. Cooper was behind the bench last year, guiding the Canadians to win the 4 Nations Face-Off.

With the win on Monday, the Lightning (28-13-3) remain second in the Atlantic Division, one point behind the Red Wings.