The Lightning has completed Jon Cooper's coaching staff for the upcoming season, announcing on Thursday the hiring of Derek Lalonde, who spent the last two seasons as head coach of the American Hockey League's Iowa Wild.
Lalonde, 45, has steadily worked his way up through the ranks of junior and developmental hockey leagues. He even has one stop in common with Cooper, having worked as head coach of the United States Hockey League's Green Bay Gamblers in 2011-14; Cooper coached the Gamblers from 2008-10.
Before his time with the Wild, Lalonde was an assistant coach in the NCAA (Ferris State, University of Denver) and a head coach in the USHL, ECHL (Toledo Walleye) and then the AHL.