Capitals name Spencer Carbery head coach

The Washington Capitals hired Spencer Carbery as their new head coach, the club announced Tuesday.

It's a four-year deal, a source told ESPN's Emily Kaplan.

Carbery spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He helmed their power play, which ranked second in the NHL with a success rate of 26.6% over that span.

The 41-year-old guided the Capitals' AHL affiliate, the Hershey Bears, to the league's best regular-season record in 2021.

He played the final two years of his career with the Capitals' ECHL team, the South Carolina Stingrays, and joined their coaching staff as an assistant after retiring as a player in August 2010. Carbery took over as the Stingrays' head coach in July 2011 and was the youngest in the league at the time at 29 years old.

Carbery later coached the OHL's Saginaw Spirit and the AHL's Providence Bruins before rejoining the Capitals' system as Bears head coach in June 2018.

The Victoria, British Columbia-born ex-forward was named the AHL's coach of the year in 2021.

The Capitals and former head coach Peter Laviolette parted ways in April. He served behind Washington's bench for the last three campaigns. The Capitals lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of his first two seasons leading the club and then missed the postseason entirely in 2022-23.

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