- Jon Cooper says the Kucherov trade request “made the team stronger”
- Cooper insists Kucherov is “100% a part of this team” this season
- Read below for Cooper’s full comments and where the standoff stands
Jon Cooper says the Nikita Kucherov trade request has not changed anything inside the Lightning locker room. If anything, he thinks it helped.
Cooper spoke Saturday before Tampa Bay’s game in Nashville, his first public comments since Kucherov told the team he won’t re-sign and wants out. He was asked how the group is handling it.
Cooper said the goals for the season are the same, with a slightly different context around how the team gets there. He was clear that Kucherov is still very much in the room.
“Kuch is 100% a part of this team. He wants to be a part of this team for this season”
Cooper went on to say the Lightning will keep operating the way they always have, and that the noise around it stays outside the building. He also talked about what happens once the season ends.
“That is how it is going to continue. All of the rest of it is outside noise, and for Kuch internally, what happens after our season is over, that’s Kuch’s right. He has earned that right for whatever happens. For us, it probably made the team stronger.”
Kucherov has played for Cooper his entire 13-year career. He recently passed Steven Stamkos for the franchise points lead, and he has 15 points in 12 games this season with the Lightning sitting at 8-3-1.
The request came out Friday when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Kucherov told the club he won’t sign an extension and wants to be traded. We have the details in our original report:
Tampa Bay responded that night. General manager Julien BriseBois put out a statement saying the Lightning “unequivocally have no intention of trading Nikita,” which we broke down in our BriseBois story:
Kucherov’s agent Dan Milstein then told The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun that his client would keep playing, a story we covered here. Kucherov warmed up Saturday and was set to face the Predators and his old teammate Stamkos.
The 33-year-old is in the final year of an eight-year, $76 million contract and is eligible for unrestricted free agency July 1. He also has a 10-team list in his modified no-trade clause.
