The Washington Capitals are finishing out their worst full season in 16 years. Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette was paid handsomely to lead the Capitals deep into the postseason but the team has not won a single playoff series since he took the helm in fall 2020. The Capitals missed the postseason altogether in 2023 and will secure, at best, the 11th-worst record in the league.
Year after year, the Capitals have gotten worse under Laviolette’s leadership, seeing its points percentage drop from .688 (his first season) to .500 this year. But that apparently doesn’t mean his tenure in Washington is guaranteed to be over when his contract ends at the conclusion of this season.
According to reporting by The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir, Laviolette’s chances of returning to the team next season are “50-50 right now” as he is “believed to still have the support of some key veterans.”
The Capitals are expected to hold Breakdown Day at the end of this week after the team’s season concludes on Thursday. Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan will meet individually with players and coaching staff.
“I think given our injury situation, all the stuff we’ve gone through here this year and last year, we’re going to sit down at the end of the year, take an evaluation, talk to ownership, see where we’re at, and move forward from there,” MacLellan said of a decision on Laviolette in early March.
Former Hershey Bears head coach Spencer Carbery is believed to be on the Capitals’ shortlist if they make a head coaching change.
The last time the Capitals relieved a head coach of their duties, the Capitals fired Todd Reirden on August 23, 2020, three days after they were eliminated from the postseason. Reirden had held the position for two seasons, both ending in first-round losses.
The Capitals will have some time to make a decision on Laviolette. The 2023 NHL Draft Lottery is on May 8. The Caps could make several big moves to further re-tool their roster at the NHL Draft on June 28 and 29 in Nashville, TN.
Early this season, the 58-year-old head coach was reportedly likely to get an extension at some point this year. However, in late March, insider Elliotte Friedman threw some cold water on that discussion while on The Jeff Marek Show, saying that contract talks have “gone cold.”
I think the other thing that’s really happening there in Washington is all of a sudden there’s a little bit of uncertainty about Peter Laviolette. He’s in the last year of his contract and I thought that it was going to be a situation where he was going to get an extension because they were talking about it early in the year and that trail has gone cold.
I think we’re all sitting here and wondering what does that mean? Where are we going in this direction? Obviously, we don’t have clarity yet but I think some of us are beginning to wonder about it a little bit more.
Laviolette could also presumably choose not to re-sign and try to find another team over the offseason.
After winning five consecutive divisional titles, the Capitals have won zero since Laviolette arrived in town. Laviolette’s systems have harmed the team’s offense and the head coach has shown litte interest in developing the organization’s youth, seemingly accelerating the team’s rapid decline.
Evgeny Kuznetsov, who was key to the Capitals’ championship run in 2018, reportedly requested to be traded twice through his agent over the last two seasons while Jonas Siegenthaler demanded a trade after being repeatedly benched by Laviolette.
Another member of the 2018 Stanley Cup team, Jakub Vrana, appeared to be forced out by the head coach after the two did not see eye-to-eye on playing styles. Ilya Samsonov, who was not brought back and is having a bounceback year with the Maple Leafs, was suspended for disciplinary reasons in May 2021 along with Kuznetsov.
During a radio hit earlier in the week, Nic Dowd was asked to describe the team’s many problems this season.
“On a systematic level, we just are having big, big breakdowns that are either causing our goalies to have to come up with really big saves, breakaways, two-on-ones, like Grade-A opportunities right in the slot, just mental breakdowns…
“It’s honestly been a huge mix of different issues,” Dowd continued. “It’s kind of hard for me to point a finger at any one thing, but it’s just reoccurred for the last like 30-something games. We have not played with a lead in so long and kept a lead, and it’s just been constantly digging ourselves out of holes. Regardless of playing a team high in the standings or low in the standings, it’s just impossible to do in the NHL.”
In rationalizing the team’s poor play, the Capitals could point to their vast injuries during the 2022-23 season, which saw Tom Wilson and Nicklas Backstrom miss the first 42 games of the season. The team also played three months without John Carlson due to a slap shot to the head. TJ Oshie, who was recently shut down for the rest of the season, played in only 58 games. Alex Ovechkin has missed nine games due to bereavement leave and injury.
The Capitals’ poorest play, however, happened when Wilson and Backstrom returned to the lineup. The Capitals have lost nearly two-thirds of their games in 2023, with a record of 14-23-4. Only the San Jose Sharks have had a worse record over that span.
The Washington Wizards, another Monumental Sports and Entertainment property, could prove a signal of ownership’s intentions. Last week, the Wizards brought back head coach Wes Unseld Jr. after two consecutive lottery-bound seasons. The Wizards, like the Capitals, have struggled with injury over the last two seasons. Unseld Jr, however, is a young, developing coach and his father was a Hall of Fame player and executive for the Wizards.
Laviolette is the eighth-winningest coach in NHL history (752), but that’s partially a product of how many games he’s coached in total. Laviolette’s been behind the bench for the 11th most games in NHL history (1428). His winning percentage is 52.7 percent.
If the Capitals end up hiring a new bench boss, it will mark the eighth different head coach Alex Ovechkin has played under as he goes into his 19th season in the NHL. In comparison, Sidney Crosby has played for just five.
Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB
