Poll: Who Should Win The 2026 Jack Adams Award?
The NHL season is beyond its halfway point and the standings have turned into one of the closest races in recent memory. Teams like the Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres sit in playoff contention, while the back-to-back Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers are on the outside looking in. Such a tight year has brought on a heap of questions. Buried under the team projections and playoff hopes sits an almost-impossibly tough question to answer: who should take home the Jack Adams Award as ‘Coach of the Year’ in a year like this?
The evergreen candidates are certain to be at the top of the list. Jared Bednar has worked out a miracle season with the Colorado Avalanche. Just one week away from February, the Avalanche have only lost six games in regulation and 15 in total. Their 35 wins in 50 games is the third-highest win-percentage (.790) since 2000, behind only the 2022-23 Boston Bruins and the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks. Bruins’ head coach Jim Montgomery won the Adams for his record-setting season but Chicago’s Joel Quenneville wasn’t awarded the same honors. That could mean Bednar has more to prove, even as his team decimates a quiet Western Conference.
Jon Cooper, Bruce Cassidy, and Rod Brind’Amour have each continued their own success through a new year. Each of the three – representing Tampa Bay, Vegas, and Carolina – sit in playoff contention on the back of familiar stars and breakout years.
But their success has become routine over recent years. The same can’t be said for the Buffalo Sabres, who have blazed a shocking season thanks to Lindy Ruff in his second year back with the club. Buffalo boasts a 29-17-5 record or .618 win-percentage, miles above the 36-39-7 and .482 win-percentage they set last season. Ruff was the last head coach to lead Buffalo to the postseason, all the way back in 2011. He took the club to eight postseason appearances, and one Stanley Cup Final, over 12 years with the club from 1998 to 2011. After a year to settle back into his spot, it appears Ruff could do it again, and snap the longest-running playoff drought in major men’s sports.
Ruff will lead a class of underdog candidates for the Jack Adams. He’s sat next to rookie NHL coach Dan Muse, a former staple of USA Hockey who brings unique tactics behind the bench. Muse is one of the league’s younger head coaches and has made do with a transforming Penguins lineup, bringing the best out of rookie Benjamin Kindel and second-chance winger Anthony Mantha. If that is enough to win out the Adams in a tight year is yet to be seen – though it’s certainly a statement way to start an NHL career.
Red Wings’ head coach Todd McLellan will hold a flame after leading the club to the top of the Atlantic Division following his usurping of Derek Lalonde last season. Montreal’s Martin St. Louis, Boston’s Marco Sturm, and Utah’s Andre Tourigny could also make the list – thanks to how well they’ve pulled together rosters in flux.
The race for Jack Adams is often closely-followed, but seems to carry a bit more weight in a season split between record-setting winners, drought-enders, and unsuspecting stars. Each candidate holds a strong case for taking home hardware this summer. Who do you think should hear their name called?
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Lightning “Quietly Extended” Jon Cooper This Offseason
Coaches on expiring contracts have been angling for new deals ahead of the regular season. Up in Alberta, the Flames’ Ryan Huska and the Oilers’ Kris Knoblauch have both signed multi-year extensions this week.
One name who won’t be the subject of an upcoming announcement is Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper. That’s because he put pen to paper on an extension with the Bolts over the offseason without a team announcement, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reports. It’s unclear how many seasons his new deal covers, but the 2025-26 campaign won’t be his last with Tampa, barring a surprising collapse.
It’s the second extension Cooper has signed in as many years. His previous deal was set to expire following last season, but he inked a one-year extension in May 2024. This one is of more importance, quieting brief speculation from earlier in the summer that Cooper might have wanted an option for a quick out, explaining why he only signed a one-year deal last year. His relationship with Mammoth owner Ryan Smith led to rumors that Utah may be his next stop. That may still be the case a few years down the road, but for now, Tampa will remain the only NHL home Cooper’s ever known.
Cooper is a unicorn in today’s NHL. As the league-average coaching tenure dips below three seasons, Cooper enters his 14th season as the Lightning’s head coach, having taken over for Guy Boucher in the 2012-13 season. His resume speaks for itself – four conference champions, two Stanley Cup championships, and a 572-306-83 (.638) regular-season record. This year will mark his 1,000th NHL game as a head coach, and at the end of the year, he’ll sit fourth all-time on the list of most games coached with a single franchise. His number will be 1,043 in April 2026, trailing only Barry Trotz’s 1,196 games with the Predators, Lindy Ruff‘s 1,247 games with the Sabres, and Al Arbour‘s 1,500 games with the Islanders.
Yet after three consecutive first-round losses, there was a small fire burning under his seat. Today’s news should extinguish it. There’s a multitude of reasons for optimism in Florida’s more northerly NHL market this year, boasting a deeper forward group than they’ve been working with for the past couple of seasons.
That leaves Ruff in Buffalo as the only coach on an expiring contract entering the campaign, LeBrun reports.
Image courtesy of Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images.
Lightning Notes: Bjorkstrand, Hagel, Hedman, Other Injuries, Howard, Cooper
The Lightning played their short-lived 2025 playoff schedule against the Panthers with an extremely banged-up roster (more on that later). One player who wasn’t available at all during the series was trade deadline acquisition Oliver Bjorkstrand. Speaking today during his end-of-season media availability, general manager Julien BriseBois said Bjorkstrand developed compartment syndrome following a game against the Red Wings on April 11 and had emergency surgery early the following morning (via the team’s Benjamin Pierce).
That’s obviously a much more serious ailment than what the Bolts initially let on. He was declared week-to-week with a lower-body injury ahead of their final three regular-season games, but no information was dispensed following that. Acute compartment syndrome occurs due to increased pressure in and around muscles following an injury and can be life-threatening if not treated quickly, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Bjorkstrand is thankfully expected to be ready for training camp in the fall, BriseBois said. He finished the year with 5-4–9 in 18 games after Tampa acquired him from the Kraken, and he has one year left on his deal at a $5.4MM cap hit.
More on the Lightning:
- Brandon Hagel confirmed he sustained a concussion on the hit from Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad in Game 4 that ended his series, Jay Recher relays. Ekblad was suspended two games for the hit and will miss Game 1 of the second round against Toronto as a result. Hagel, who was limited to a minus-four rating in three games of the series due to his injury and a previous suspension, added that Ekblad didn’t approach him beforehand to discuss a retaliatory fight for Hagel’s suspension-causing hit on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov, nor has Ekblad reached out to Hagel following his concussion. “I would have answered the bell if someone would have said, ‘Let’s fight,'” Hagel said. “I don’t care if I would have got my ass kicked. I have to respond to a situation. I understood it was the case” (via Loux).
- Captain Victor Hedman played the last two games of the series on a broken foot, BriseBois said (via Diandra Loux of The Hockey News). He’ll be ready for camp in the fall after recording three assists and a minus-six rating in the series.
- Other Bolts playing through injuries were Anthony Cirelli (Grade 2 MCL sprain), Luke Glendening (right shoulder AC joint separation), Nikita Kucherov (left hand extensor), Nick Paul (left wrist tear), and Yanni Gourde (broken finger), Brisebois told reporters. Like Bjorkstrand and Hedman, they’re all expected to be ready for training camp in the fall, although Glendening and Gourde are pending unrestricted free agents and may not be back with the team.
- BriseBois confirmed a report last month from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet that they’re unlikely to sign 2022 first-round pick Isaac Howard to an entry-level contract (via Recher). They’ll focus on trading his signing rights over the next year while he returns to Michigan State for his senior season. If they can’t sign or trade the Hobey Baker winner’s rights by Aug. 15, 2026, and he becomes an unrestricted free agent, the Lightning will receive a compensatory 2027 second-round pick (No. 65 overall) for failing to sign a first-round draft choice.
- Head coach Jon Cooper will serve out the final season of his contract in Tampa despite recent speculation otherwise, BriseBois said (via Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times). “When this contract ends, my expectation is he’s going sign another one and he’s going to be here…So Coop will be back next year, and I expect beyond,” BriseBois said.
Coaching Notes: Cooper, Tocchet, Brind’Amour
Over the last few years, several NHL teams have seen head coaches come and go, and that won’t change this summer. However, the Tampa Bay Lightning haven’t made a head coaching change since the 2012-13 season, when they promoted Jon Cooper from their AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch.
Larry Brooks of the New York Post states that reality could change relatively soon. Brooks believes it’s odd that Cooper only signed a one-year extension through the 2025-26 season, and a source close to the situation thinks he’s headed out west to take over the Utah Hockey Club, owned by close friend Ryan Smith.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Cooper depart from the Lightning organization in a few years. He’s won two Stanley Cups (while coaching in four) and has become the franchise’s all-time winningest coach. Additionally, after their last Final appearance in 2022, the Lightning have been eliminated in back-to-back opening-round series, and they’re in danger of doing so for a third consecutive season, meaning Cooper’s message may be becoming stale in the locker room.
Other coaching notes:
- Rick Tocchet‘s departure from the Vancouver Canucks had nothing to do with their recent extension offer. Tocchet’s agent, Steve Mountain, said (via Rick Dhaliwal of The Athletic), “They stepped up, made the decision hard, you can not say the Canucks did not extend themselves.” Mountain’s comments imply that the Canucks were prepared to make Tocchet one of the league’s highest-paid coaches, and they may be willing to extend a similar offer to one of their favorite coaching candidates this summer.
- The Carolina Hurricanes became the first team in the 2024-25 Stanley Cup playoffs to win a series, setting history behind the bench. The NHL’s Coaching Association announced that last night’s victory made Rod Brind’Amour the first coach in NHL history to win at least one postseason series through his first seven years of tenure. Unfortunately, that success hasn’t carried into Round Two too often as Brind’Amour has only seen two Conference Finals as a head coach, this year’s postseason notwithstanding.
Canada Names Jon Cooper Head Coach For 4 Nations Face-Off, Winter Olympics
Hockey Canada has announced two-time Stanley Cup champion coach Jon Cooper as its bench boss for both the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and 2026 Winter Olympics.
Cooper, 56, will enter his 13th season behind the Lightning bench in the fall. The longest-serving head coach in the league will return to the international stage for the first time since 2017 when he coached Canada at the World Championship. He also assisted for Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The future Hall-of-Fame coach has been one of many affected by the NHL’s lack of participation in international events for the last decade, leading to a surprising lack of accolades for Canada on the world stage. A British Columbia native, Cooper has also routinely led the Lightning deep into postseason play, including three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances from 2020 to 2022. That’s hampered his availability to serve on the Canadian bench for less star-studded tournaments like the World Championship.
In his lone showing for Canada internationally, Cooper led a Canadian roster led by Nathan MacKinnon, Mitch Marner and Ryan O’Reilly to a silver medal at the Worlds. It was their third straight year making the gold medal game after back-to-back wins in 2015 and 2016, but they lost to a Sweden contingent led by Henrik Lundqvist and William Nylander.
Canada hasn’t filled out the rest of their coaching staff for the upcoming tournaments, although those announcements should come before the end of the year. Their first six players for the inaugural 4 Nations tournament, which takes place in February 2025, will be announced this week. They do have their management group in place, though. Blues GM Doug Armstrong will be their principal hockey ops decision-maker for the upcoming best-on-best events, with the Bruins’ Don Sweeney and the Stars’ Jim Nill serving as his assistants.