From The Archive: Jon Cooper

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Jon Cooper - Jan. 19, 2021 - By Ken Campbell 

THE HOCKEY NEWS: A few years ago, you and some other coaches (Mike Babcock, Mike Sullivan and Ken Hitchcock) revamped the NHL Coaches’ Association. Can you tell us about that?

JON COOPER: When you think about it, the players have a union and the owners are the owners. The coaches were kind of on an island. And in the end, nobody really looks after us. It’s not going to prevent guys from getting fired, but it has turned into a phenomenal resource. Before 2016, we would just meet once a year at the draft and we’d have an all-day meeting, but in the end, we weren’t really accomplishing what needed to be done. This isn’t a combative association. It’s an association to help other coaches.

THN: So how do you do that?

JC: As an NHL head coach, we kind of lead the way, but there are assistants and video guys and goalie coaches and American League guys. We brought in Michael Hirschfeld because he had the same vision. The head coaches have pretty good healthcare, but the assistants don’t. Who’s going to work to make sure that happens? We had no sponsorships at all. Who’s going to go out there and get those? Being a head coach in the NHL, there’s some power to that because there are coaches all over the world who are looking to us for guidance. So it’s our duty to help those people out. We structured our fees on salary scales and we hired Mike, and he has done a fabulous job. He’s brought Bauer on board. He got suit deals. He has elevated the health-insurance plan for the assistants. When guys are negotiating contracts, he’s a resource. Because before when you were negotiating, nobody knew what guys were making. And now we’ve brought on Lindsay Arkin, so now we have two people. And to put it bluntly, they’ve kicked some ass.

THN: Why do you think coaches are so reticent to publicly disclose their salaries, given how well it has worked out for the players?

JC: I think there are teams out there that have a different mentality on what they should pay coaches, what they can afford to pay coaches. I think because of that, some guys get shortchanged a little bit and they’d rather not have the world know that. We don’t have big-time agents or unions and we don’t have any rights. There are so many people champing at the bit to get an opportunity that it’s difficult for coaches in that regard. It’s probably more to protect the owners and the GMs. For the most part, GMs are fair. The head coaches are the guys running the ship, so I think paying a coach like a fourth-liner is probably not the wisest thing to do. When guys come into the league and they’re brand new, they make the minimum (for players, which is $700,000) and you should probably make the minimum. But after that, if you have success, your salary should be escalated, and, for the most part, that happens.

THN: You’re in Year 2 of a three-year deal you got at the end of the 2018-19 season. Was it difficult going through that process?

JC: I’ve been with (Tampa Bay GM) Julien (BriseBois) for a long time. During that season, we were having one of the greatest seasons in the history of the game, so I was thinking, “Well, this is interesting. How long is it going to go?” To be fair to Julien, he said, “I’m going to look after you. I’ve got a whole bunch of things to do and you’re not my worry. I know you and I will work something out.” I don’t use an agent and it’s always been amicable. Then we got swept (in the playoffs). But then we win the Stanley Cup (the next season) so it’s funny how it works.

THN: How much does a head coach typically get involved on the business side?

JC: We need to sell the game. We’re not Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver. I’m not involved in the day-to-day, but I do things for the organization that would help on the business side. For instance, we just went from Coke to Pepsi and Pepsi does a podcast that we did. We just did a thing with Chase Bank. We did a Zoom call with them and all their heavy-hitter employees. Things like that.

>SPOTLIGHT: JOHN TORTORELLA

SOMETHING OF A DICHOTOMY in that he is one of the league’s most outspoken coaches, but Tortorella is also intensely private and almost never does 1-on-1 interviews. Chroniclers looking to peer into his soul have come away disappointed many times. In another dichotomy, Tortorella is one of the league’s most stern taskmasters and has little patience for anything short of complete effort, but he’s also loved by his players. That’s certainly the case in Columbus, where the fan base adores him, too. Going into the final year of his deal, Tortorella doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to get an extension. In fact, both sides have said they will wait until after this season to work on a new deal. With a promising roster and his bench mastery, Tortorella could very well be dealing from a position of strength when he sits down with Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen after the season.