A man who played with an edge for 16 seasons in the National Hockey League was introduced as the Vernon Vipers new head coach and general manager at The Edge Restaurant at The Rise Resort.
Matt Cooke, who spent his 16-year NHL career with the Vancouver Canucks, Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Minnesota Wild, was introduced at a press conference Friday, July 18.
Cooke, 46, will take over from Lukas Lomicky, who the Vipers said was offered the chance to remain with the organization, but declined.
Vernon missed the 2025 post-season in the B.C. Hockey League, finishing 10th in the then-11-team Interior Conference.
"We looked at a lot of different opportunities for coaches," said Vipers owner Tom Glen. "We interviewed Matt a number of times, and a lot of his core values aligned with those of the Vipers. He's a very well connected guy who played the game at the highest level for a long period of time. We're really excited for Matt Cooke."
Cooke, from Belleville, Ont., played Tier 3 Junior Hockey (BCHL equivalent) in his home province with the Wellington Dukes before jumping to the Ontario Hockey League's Windsor Spitfires as a 16-year-old. Cooke played nearly three seasons in Windsor before being dealt to the OHL's Kingston Frontenacs.
The Canucks chose Cooke in the sixth round of the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.
"The team I envision here will have five players on the ice in the picture, all connected," said Cooke, who played in more than 1,000 NHL games. "The team will be fast, have an element of physicality but that won't be the focus. The focus is puck possession.
"I'm a coach that wants to be adaptive. I'll coach any system that will be the best to help the team be successful. I'm a coach that thrives on communication in a relationship. A big piece of who I am as a coach is making individual connections with every player, and building trust."
Former NHL player Dean McAmmond, who joined the Vipers near the end of the 2025 season as an assistant coach, will stay with the team as director of player development and mentorship. Cooke and the Vipers will hire two assistant coaches prior to the start of the team's training camp at the end of August.
McAmmond was on hand at the press conference to support Cooke, as was former NHL player Mike Sillinger, who had two sons play for now departed Penticton Vees in the BCHL. The Vees are making the jump to the Western Hockey League. Sillinger is serving as a consultant with the Snakes.
Cooke comes to the Vipers from having coached the Newfoundland Growlers, the Toronto Maple Leafs' ECHL (known until 2003 as the East Coast Hockey league) affiliate. He was hired in 2023 and had guided the team to a 28-28-6 record when, with six games left in 2024, the ECHL pulled the plug on the franchise for not fulfilling league bylaws.
Cooke then began working with Hall of Famer Adam Oates in helping players develop their skills. It was through that experience that Cooke discovered he wanted to be back among the players.
"I came to realize I need the locker room. I didn't want to be on a computer that much, that long," he said. "I need to have an effect on the team. So I put my name out there and was telling people I was looking to get back into coaching."
Cooke spent the better part of nine seasons with the Canucks before he was dealt to the Washington Capitals in 2008 at the trade deadline. He then ended up the following season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and won a Stanley Cup in 2009.
But it was also with the Penguins where his hockey chapter darkened.
It was Cooke's open-ice blind shoulder check on Marc Savard of the Boston Bruins in March 2010 that has been called one of the cheapest shots in NHL history. The hit contributed to the end of Savard's playing career, and led to a league rule change to try and deter blindside hits.
He would be suspended 17 games the next season for an elbow to the head of Ryan McDonagh of the New York Rangers, and was involved in a collision with all-star defenceman Erik Karlsson of the Ottawa Senators that saw Cooke's skate sever Karlsson's Achilles tendon. Some said the cut was deliberate.
His last suspension came in 2014 when he was dispatched for seven games for a knee-on-knee hit against Colorado Avalanche defenceman Tyson Barrie.
Asked if he has, or can, put his reputation behind him, Cooke said it's something he'll never be able to do.
"If I didn't play the way I played, I wouldn't have had a 16-year career in the NHL," he said. "I'm 5-foot-10. In 1998, if you were under 6-foot-2, you didn't play. I had to convince people I could play...I didn't do just those things. I scored 30-to-40 points a year, and I brought an element of physicality most other players weren't willing to do. I was a viable third-line centre."
Cooke scored 167 goals and finished two points shy of 400 for his playing career.
After being traded by Vancouver, Cooke rarely, if ever, returned to B.C. But over the past couple of years, he's gotten involved with the Canucks alumni group, and even made a signing appearance at the Abbotsford Canucks' final home game in the American Hockey League playoffs' Calder Cup final. The reception from B.C. fans, he said, has been overwhelmingly positive.
He played in a fun charity hockey event for Semiahmoo (near White Rock) Minor Hockey, and that's how the Vipers found out he was looking for a job.
"I didn't know they were hiring," said Cooke of his new team. "But I'm glad for the opportunity here."
