Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has been awarded the Jack Adams Award, recognizing him as the NHL’s coach of the year. The NHL made the announcement on Saturday after an earlier celebration where Carbery’s family presented him with the accolade. This achievement marks a significant milestone as Carbery becomes the first individual to receive coach of the year honors in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL.
Carbery received a majority of the votes from the league’s broadcasters, gathering 81 out of 103 first-place votes, displaying a decisive victory. Following behind were Winnipeg’s Scott Arniel in second place and Montreal’s Martin St. Louis in third. In his sophomore season at the helm of an NHL team, Carbery successfully steered the Washington Capitals to a first-place finish in the Eastern Conference. His leadership played a crucial role in helping several players set personal career records and guiding the Capitals to the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Capitals general manager Chris Patrick attributed much of the team’s success to Carbery’s effective communication and his ability to hold players accountable while utilizing their strengths. “The best indication is a lot of our guys had career years,” Patrick remarked at a press conference. “I think the relationship between the players and the coach throughout our lineup was excellent this year.” Upon becoming a finalist the previous month, Carbery acknowledged the recognition as a testament to the entire organization’s efforts.
Carbery expressed, “I look at our entire staff and everything that they put in, our players, management to provide the players everything. It’s for my name to be there as the figurehead of the organization, but I look at that as a team-nominated award of what we’ve done as a coaching staff, management team, our players, what they’ve accomplished in the regular season.”
Peers from around the league lauded Carbery’s ability to elevate an aging roster to postseason glory in his first year with Washington while transforming the Capitals into one of the premier teams in the NHL. In admiration, Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper, the NHL’s current longest-tenured coach and two-time Stanley Cup winner, commented, “He’s turned them into a deep, four-line juggernaut that just wins hockey games. There’s no egos on the team, and he’s found a way to coach a Hall of Fame superstar and coach players that are just surviving to be in the lineup every night, and he’s found a way to make it all work.”