On 5/30/23 The Washington Capitals officially announced their next bench boss and the team’s 20th head coach in franchise history and replacing the mediocre to mid Peter Laviolette.
Spencer Carbery (41) has been reported to signing a potential 4 year contract that would extend to the 26-27 NHL season.
Carbery is not a stranger to the Capital’s organization because he served with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL which is where he ended his playing career as well, and the Hershey Bears of the AHL most recent as the 20-21 season.
During his time in Hershey he posted a 104-50-9-8 record, which included an AHL best 24-7-2-0 record in his final season in chocolate land.
Carbery most recently served as the Assistant Coach of the Toronto Maples Leafs. Let’s hope Spencer doesn’t bring that lackadaisical play that the Leafs showed this past playoffs.
“We are extremely pleased to name Spencer as our new head coach,” Capitals GM Brian MacLellan said in a release. “Spencer is one of the best young coaches in the game who’s had success at every level at which he has coached. We feel his leadership, communication skills, ability to develop players and familiarity with our organization will be a tremendous asset as he makes this next step in his coaching career.”
The Caps mentioned that Carbery coached and helped in the development of Capital’s players Martin Fehervary, Aliaksei Protas, Connor McMichael, Alex Alexeyev, Beck Malenstyn, Lucas Johansen, and Joe Snively to name a few.
The Capital’s reached out to some other coaches who worked with or observed Carbery and they were stated in saying that Spencer is “great hockey mind”. Love hearing this about him but lets be honest talk is cheap and until it shows with the product on the ice.
Based on the some research it seemed like Carbery had the choice between the Ducks or the Caps and he chose Washington. If I were to guess having already worked within the Capital’s organization had a huge part in his decision.
The biggest thing is that he is a young blood in the coaching game which I think this team needs in large quantities. So I hope he can ignite a fire that has been missing the last couple seasons.
I think we will see more of the young talent that is sitting and waiting in the AHL for their full-time chance instead of being sent up and down all season.
I am always optimistic with this team because we had suffered so much prior to the Stanley Cup winning season. So if the Caps can stay healthy and some of the young bucks step up things could be interesting all season long.
The Morning Skate 