He became the 3rd fastest head coach ever to join that club, doing it in 839 games. Only Bruce Boudreau (837) and Scotty Bowman (825) have done it faster. Cooper is the fastest to reach 500 wins with one team, and the 29th coach in league history to win 500 or more games.
He still got a long way to go if he even hopes to catch Scotty Bowman for the all time record.
Still, being able to win 500 or more games behind an NHL bench is pretty impressive. And being to be able to do it all with one franchise speaks volumes. Coop took over for Guy Boucher as head coach here in Tampa in March of 2013 and has been there ever since. Aside from that short stretch at the end of the 2013 season, Cooper has only missed the playoffs once in his tenure as Bolts bench boss, that coming in 2017 missing the playoffs by just a single point. IN that time, he's won two Stanley Cups and been to the finals on two other occasions. Aside from his cup rings, he's been a finalist for the Jack Adams as coach of the year twice, 2014 and 2019.
Cooper has had a great run in Tampa with many high quality players playing under him. They all believe in his system and he's taken the talent that he has around him and made it work inside said system to achieve the ultimate goal. There's never any doubt that Cooper should have his plaque in Toronto at the Hockey Hall of Fame when all is said and done. The man knows how to get the best out of his players and help keep a winning feeling alive and well here in the Bay area.
It's safe to say that Copper has passed John Tortorella as the best head coach this Lightning franchise has ever had. Nothing against Torts and what he did here in Tampa. Cooper just had more sustained high levels of success. We would even go so far to say that Cooper will go down as one of the top five greatest coaches to ever lead a team here in the Tampa area. Yes that even includes the Bucs and rays coaches as well!
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