TAMPA, Fla. — When Lightning coach Jon Cooper thinks about the legacy he wants to leave in Tampa Bay, winning games and hoisting the Stanley Cup is certainly part of it.

But when you hear him grab a microphone and talk about the kids he has met who have been stricken with cancer, it’s clear that this is where he really wants to make a difference in the community.

Monday morning, Cooper held his seventh annual “Coop’s Catch for Kids” charity fishing tournament, which benefits pediatric cancer research. Cooper’s first tournament in 2016 raised $60,000. This year’s event has brought the grand total to more than $1 million.

It’s a special day on the water with a Lightning player for kids who have battled cancer, the event’s guests of honor. It’s become a team-bonding event for the players, who get to brag about who catches the biggest fish.

And it’s grown into one of Cooper’s deepest passions.

“To be at the situation we’re at now, it is amazing,” he said. “But it says a ton about the city of Tampa and the people that support us. And I know they’re supporting Jon Cooper and ‘Coop’s Catch’ and they’re supporting us, but it’s a byproduct of the Tampa Bay Lightning and this cause and what this all means to this city.”

Seeking ‘the will to try to live a normal life’

One of this year’s three guests of honor was 6-year-old Remi Sutherland, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at age 3. She has undergone eight different types of chemotherapy treatments over the past 2 1/2 years, including more than a year of daily oral chemotherapy.

One of Remi’s favorite hobbies is fishing. Her mother, Ashley, said she’s been doing it since she could hold a pole. Saturday, she boarded a boat to fish with her father, Chris, and Lightning defenseman J.J. Moser.

Ashley Sutherland said she didn’t notice any real symptoms in her daughter until one day when Remi was playing in a toy car and started saying, “no up.” When Ashley lifted her out of the car, Remi couldn’t stand on her own. The next day, doctors set up emergency tests and she was on her way to the first of 27 trips to the emergency room.

Because Remi also had leukemia in her spinal fluid, she underwent an extremely aggressive treatment that included numerous spinal taps and injections.

“Leukemia will hide anywhere and everywhere in your body, so they have to hit you with that harsh treatment,” her mother said. “And I guess a lot of the research and studies show that if you don’t attack it for that period of time it tends to come back, which is why treatment is so long.”

Despite going through that treatment, Remi learned to ride horses two years ago.

“She jumped right into it and did,” Ashley said. “It didn’t bother her that she still has a port in and all this other stuff going on. She could be sick as a dog. She would not miss a lesson. I mean, she was stubborn, but she just has the will to just try to live a normal life.”

Remi currently is in remission but still sees an oncologist every three months to make sure she remains cancer-free.

‘How can you not help them?’

Cooper talks often about the example for giving set by Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, starting with the team’s Community Hero program that donates $50,000 to a local charity every home game.

At the end of Sunday’s pre-event Anglers’ Night, Vinik made a $50,000 donation. The team’s incoming majority owners, Doug Ostrover and Marc Lipschultz, contributed another $50,000. Donations continued to come in, including ones from CEO Steve Griggs, general manager Julien BriseBois, the Lightning’s assistant coaches and the players.

Cooper, the NHL’s longest-tenured coach, said he feels lucky to have enjoyed longevity with the organization in a role that’s become increasingly less stable across the league.

“I never wake up a day without thinking how fortunate I’ve been to be in the situation I’ve been in for this long,” Cooper said. “And I would be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to give back. Tampa is my home, and it will always be my home. In the end, it’s not the Stanley Cups. Yes, do I love all that? I do, but to be able to wake up every day and say, ‘You know what? I tried to do my part.’ ”

Cooper began his own family foundation, the J5 Foundation (he, his wife Jessie and children Jonny, Julia and Jose, all begin with the letter J), in 2022 as a charitable fund that runs through the Lightning Foundation. Through the foundation, Cooper has plans to sponsor a room at the Children’s Hospital at Tampa General Hospital. He hopes the room can serve as a lounge for families while their kids are receiving treatment.

Among the many “Coop’s Catch” honorees who have beaten cancer is 18-year-old Weston Hermann, who attended his first event in 2017 and has been involved ever since. Hermann in April underwent his third brain cancer surgery, one that risked him losing his fine motor skills. Yet, he was playing back hockey just 23 days later.

Cooper knows the other side of it as well. During Anglers’ Night, he got choked up while talking about Mason Fox and Trippy Nugent, two former guests of honor who died within two months of each other earlier this year. Mason dropped the puck at last season’s Hockey Fights Cancer night. Trippy was with Cooper at the 2023 tournament and caught the biggest fish.

“You think about the battle those kids went through and the impact they have on myself, the players, and how much fun we have with them, and now they’re no longer with us,” Cooper said. “There’s other people left behind, and it’s the brothers, the sisters, the parents, the grandparents. And how can you not help them go through what’s the most agonizing event in their life? And that’s why we’re here, to help that in whatever small way we can.”

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