Spencer Carbery is the new head coach of the Washington Capitals. What can he bring despite no NHL head coaching experience?
A lot.
He served as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs the last two seasons and oversaw and constructed what turned out to be one of the league’s top power play units.
The Washington Capitals have named Spencer Carbery the team’s head coach. #ALLCAPS
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) May 30, 2023
He still needs to add a couple more pieces to his coaching staff including a new power play guy with the firing of Blaine Forsythe. But Carbery will likely still have a say on the power play because honestly you gotta trust him when it comes to that.
Prior to Toronto he was coaching the Hershey Bears and the Caps AHL affiliates posted a combined record of 104-50-9-8 for a combined .658 point percentage including an AHL best 24-7-2-0 record with a .758 point percentage in his final season behind the Bears bench in 2021.
Carbery received the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s outstanding coach for the 2021 season becoming the fifth coach in Hershey franchise history to win the award.
During his three year tenure with Hershey, Carbery coached and aided in the development of several young players that appeared in Caps games this past season.
Notable Capitals players Spencer Carbery coached in Hershey:
— Matt Weyrich (@ByMattWeyrich) May 30, 2023
Connor McMichael
Martin Fehervary
Alex Alexeyev
Aliaksei Protas
Joe Snively
Beck Malenstyn
Lucas Johansen https://t.co/lwNSO2OZsF
The Vicoria, British Columbia native spent five seasons as head coach and director of hockey operations for the South Carolina Stingrays from 2011 to 2016. The Stingrays became the Caps ECHL affiliate in Carbery’s final two seasons coaching the team.
Carbery compiled a record of 207-115-38 leading the Stingrays to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of his five seasons. He guided South Carolina in total to two division titles, two Eastern Conference Finals appearances and a Kelly Cup Finals appearance in 2015.
In 2013-14 Carbery won the John Brophy Coach of The Year Award after leading the Stingrays to their first division title since 2000-01. Carbery is one of four coaches to ever win coach of the year awards at both the AHL and ECHL levels.
In addition to his time with the Maple Leafs, Bears and Stingrays, Carbery served as head coach of the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) in 2016-17 and was an assistant coach with the AHL’s Providence Bruins in 2017-18.
Overall that is a pretty stacked resume and would qualify for any head coaching job in the NHL. What makes Carbery different and unique is that he already knows the organization and could be a key role model for the youth movement.