Two years ago, Spencer Carbery made what he considered to be a difficult decision to leave the Hershey Bears for an assistant position with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Usually, a chance to jump from the American Hockey League to the NHL would be considered a no-brainer for any rising coach.
But Carbery had become used to having control. And more importantly, he was leaving a place where he formed a tight-knit bond with players, coaches and other members of the organization. Easy? Anything but.
“It was a difficult decision but one that I thought would … help a lot in my development to one day hopefully become an NHL head coach,” Carbery said.
He doesn’t have to hold out hope anymore. Carbery’s two-year stint in Toronto ultimately led to him landing a top gig behind an NHL bench — with the organization that he initially left behind, no less.
As the new coach of the Washington Capitals, Hershey’s parent affiliate, Carbery returns to the organization that first hired him in the minors and is now trusting him to oversee a team at a crossroads. With an aging core in need of a youth infusion, Carbery will be tasked with having to get Washington back to contention during Alex Ovechkin’s final years.
But Carbery’s Toronto stint, it turns out, proved crucial to landing the job.
Not only was the 41-year-old credited for helping turn the Maple Leafs’ power play into one the NHL’s top units, but the opportunity gave Carbery the much-needed experience of working with Toronto’s biggest stars. Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan pointed to Carbery’s time with Toronto as a factor in bringing him back to Washington.
Carbery’s working experience with NHL players — along with his years in the minor leagues — have him poised to lead the Capitals. Even if he’s only four years older than his star player.
“We have a highly motivated group of veteran players, leadership group and we also have a group of players that it’s my job to bring along and integrate into that group (of veterans),” Carbery said. “So that to me is exciting. You have young players who are hungry to prove that they’re capable National Hockey League players and then you’ve got a group of veteran players that feel like they’ve got a bit of chip on their shoulder and they’re ready to prove something.
“That mix and match is what I try to bring together and make sure we compete at a real high level,” he added.
To reach that level, Carbery said he’ll emphasize two areas: “Pace” and how connected the Capitals are when on the ice. By pace, the coach doesn’t mean just the speed at which the Capitals skate, but how the team moves with and without the puck. In turn, Carbery wants all five to move with each other.
That should, in theory, benefit Washington, which has looked slower against opponents in recent years and ranked 20th in goals per game this past season.
The last time the Capitals relied on a first-time coach, however, didn’t turn out as planned. After winning the Stanley Cup in 2018, Washington promoted Todd Reirden to take over for Barry Trotz. Reirden, though, failed to reach the same levels of success as his predecessor: The Capitals fired Reirden after two seasons in which Washington failed to win a playoff series.
That latter point — Washington failing to advance in the postseason — hasn’t changed in the years since, even after the Capitals turned to a veteran coach to replace Reirden. Peter Laviolette lasted three years on the job, but the Capitals ultimately missed the postseason this spring for the first time since 2014. The snapped playoff streak caused MacLellan to reevaluate what he was looking for in this year’s pool of candidates.
It wasn’t long in the process, the executive said, before Carbery was identified as a top candidate for the position. The Capitals interviewed other rising assistants like Tampa Bay’s Jeff Halpern, but kept coming back to Carbery — who they knew could lead based on his time in Hershey and South Carolina. (Carbery began his coaching career with the South Carolina Stingrays in the East Coast Hockey League.)
“He’s demonstrated an ability to work with players at every level,” MacLellan said. “He possesses a lot of qualities we were looking in a head coach.”
MacLellan said there was a “high level of trust and comfort” that led the parties to reunite. Carbery, too, had other options: He interviewed with the San Jose Sharks in 2022 and has long been considered a rising candidate to land an NHL job.
But of the numerous vacancies this spring, Carbery jumped at the chance to speak to Washington — a team he knew all too well.
“I’m going to put everything I’ve got into this organization,” Carbery said.
• Matthew Paras can be reached at mparas@washingtontimes.com.
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