The Washington Capitals have hired Toronto Maple Leafs assistant Spencer Carbery as its next head coach. According to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Carbery received a four-year deal.
Carbery will replace Peter Laviolette, who the Capitals fired in April after three seasons.
Capitals GM Brian MacLellan sought after Carbery from the start of his search. However, Carbery, who many tabbed as the top available coaching candidate around the league, spoke with other teams searching for a coach.
Ultimately, Carbery will return to the Capitals organization for his third stint, including him as a player, assistant, and head coach. Carbery played for the Capitals’ ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, for the 2009-10 season before becoming an assistant of the team the following season.
He left the organization to coach in the Ontario Hockey League. Then, he returned in 2018 as the head coach of the Capitals’ AHL affiliate, Hershey Bears. Carberry led the Bears to the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy in 2021, the AHL’s regular season league championship, and got named the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award for Coach of the Year.
Carbery has been an assistant with the Maple Leafs for the past two seasons. He was in charge of the team’s power play. Toronto converted 26% of its power plays, second in the NHL during the regular season.
The Capitals are now on its third head coach since winning the 2018 Stanley Cup championship. After guiding the Capitals to the Standley Cup, Barry Trotz couldn’t reach a deal for a contract extension, and the team parted ways.
Washington failed to get out of the first round of the NHL playoffs in the next four seasons under former head coaches Todd Reirden and Peter Laviolette. This season, the Capitals failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2013-14 season with Laviolette.
Spencer Carberry takes over a team that marches to the beat of all-time great Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin’s chase for the NHL’s all-time goal record has moved to the forefront of the Capitals’ focus. Ovechkin’s 822 goals are second to Wayne Gretzky at 894.
Owner Ted Leonsis has promised Ovechkin the team will not rebuild and instead continue to try to compete for a championship.
MacLellan has needed to be strategic with making the roster younger, attempting to build around the 37-year-old Ovechkin. Still, the Capitals are an aging veteran team. Carberry’s objective depends on the front office’s vision.
Either he’ll get tasked with getting the Capitals back to their expectations before peaking in 2018, or he’ll help transition the franchise from the end of the Ovechkin era to the future.
Carberry’s time with Hershey will be instrumental. There he helped the development of prospects Martin Fehervary, Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael, and Alex Alexeyev, among others that expect to have integral roles in the immediate future with the Capitals.
