Jon Cooper was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, putting the Tampa Bay coach among three NHL bench bosses in line for the league's top coaching honor. He was joined by Pittsburgh's Dan Muse and Buffalo's Lindy Ruff.
The award is given each year to the NHL coach judged to have contributed the most to his team's success, with the winner determined by a poll of members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. This year's field brings together Cooper, Muse and Ruff after a season in which coaching decisions shaped races at both ends of the standings.
Ruff's case is built on a season that began with Buffalo in last place in the Eastern Conference on Dec. 9 and turned after a victory in Edmonton that night sparked a 10-game winning streak. From there, the Sabres won 39 games, posted the highest points percentage in the NHL at.783 and finished with 109 points and 50 wins, all while tying for second in the league with 55 goals from their defensemen.
For Ruff, the finalist nod is familiar. He won the Jack Adams Award in 2005-06, was first named a finalist that season and has now been selected five times in all, including 2006-07, 2015-16 and 2022-23. The Sabres' run also ended a playoff drought that dated to 2011, sending Buffalo back to the postseason for the first time since then and delivering a division title in the NHL's toughest division.
That is the measure the award is built to capture. Introduced in 1973-74, it has been won multiple times by only seven coaches, a reminder that year-to-year success behind the bench is rare and hard to sustain.
Buffalo players described Ruff as demanding without losing the room. Mattias Samuelsson said he can come in, share the morning coffee and then let a few players hear it, adding that he puts the group on notice about the standard around the team. Samuelsson also said Ruff has been good at reading what the group needs on a given day, whether that is a kick in the pants or support.
Rasmus Dahlin said the coach can switch on the intensity when it is time and leaves no room for coasting, but he also called him a good man who cares about his players and handles the personal side well. Those traits helped define a season in Buffalo that started with pressure and ended with one of the league's most complete turnarounds.
The finalists now wait for the broadcasters' vote, with Cooper, Muse and Ruff each carrying a different case into the decision.
