Washington Capitals: New coaching hires complement Todd Reirden

In hiring Scott Arniel and Reid Cashman, the Washington Capitals have built a coaching staff to complement their new head coach.

The Washington Capitals recently rounded out the 2018-19 coaching staff with the hires of Scott Arniel and Reid Cashman as assistant coaches. Arniel and Cashman will join Blaine Forsythe under first-year head coach Todd Reirden for the upcoming season.

Both Arniel and Cashman have previous coaching experience. Per the Washington Post, Arniel was the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets for two seasons, and an associate coach with the Rangers for five. Cashman was an assistant coach for Quinnipiac University before joining the Hershey Bears for the past two seasons.

Cashman and Forsythe will likely fill more traditional assistant coach roles. But, the hiring of Arniel, who is as of now the only member of the coaching staff with prior NHL head coaching experience, sticks out. Is Arniel mainly here for his considerable experience, or could he be a contingency in case Reirden does not work out?

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The reason that second option might be viable is due to the parallels between Arniel and Reirden, when he joined the team in 2014.

That year, when Barry Trotz took over, Reirden was the only outside hire Trotz himself was not linked to, with Forshythe returning from the previous administration and Lane Lambert following Trotz over from Nashville. Reirden was recruited instead by new General Manager Brian MacLellan, who had followed his work as an assistant in Pittsburgh.

While it is unclear whether Arniel is primarily a Reirden hire or a MacLellan one, the Washington GM mentioned earlier in the offseason that hiring a coach with NHL experience was a goal of the team’s. Per the Washington Times:

"“Ideally, I think that would be the perfect fit. We’re not going to make that a requirement, but if we found a guy who was like that and who could fit in that role, we would do that, yes.”"

While Arniel fits the bill of who the Capitals were interested in hiring, it is worth mentioning that he has not exactly received rave reviews for his NHL experience.

Although he lost in the finals of the AHL Calder Cup with the 2009 Manitoba Moose, his time in Columbus and New York failed to meet expectations. He was fired from Columbus in early 2012 after accusations of losing his team, and was let go from the Rangers earlier in the offseason after a disappointing season.

It is important to note that this Capitals team has more weapons than the Blue Jackets teams Arniel coached. The Rangers had more issues than just Arniel’s coaching. Even so, his history does not inspire much confidence in his potentially being a head coach for this team.

Because of these factors, the hiring of Arniel appears to be a show of tremendous faith in Todd Reirden’s abilities. Unlike the circumstances surrounding Trotz’s hire, where Reirden was seen early on as the heir apparent to his job, Arniel is likely a member of this staff simply to support the rookie head coach.

It is very unlikely that the controversy surrounding Trotz’s departure will be repeated with Reirden.

The success of these hires can ultimately only be analyzed after a few seasons, but for now Todd Reirden should feel secure in the knowledge that he has his GM’s support and the commitment of the Washington Capitals organization.