Spencer Carbery was named one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year.
The second-year bench boss led the Washington Capitals to the Eastern Conference’s best record, 51-22-9, during the the 2024-25 regular season. The Caps completed one of the biggest turnarounds in the NHL, going from barely sneaking into the playoffs last season to the first team to clinch a spot this year.
“Tremendous honor. Very, very humbling,” Carbery said Monday. “For us, I look at it as a staff, for that matter, organizational nomination. Just knowing the other 31 head coaches in this league and the amount of respect that I have for them, so to be considered for that award, I look at our entire staff and everything that they put in, our players, management to provide the players everything.
“For my name to be there as the figurehead of the organization, I look at that, to me, that’s 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.”
Carbery finished seventh in the award voting last year and commanded the Capitals to far better numbers this season. The Caps scored 70 more goals and allowed 23 fewer goals in Carbery’s second season, improving their goal differential from minus-36 to plus-57, a 93-goal jump in just one year. They also accumulated 20 more standings points than the previous season.
The 43-year-old former pro is the sixth Capitals head coach ever to be named a finalist and the first since Barry Trotz (2016). Three former Caps bench bosses have taken home the trophy, including Trotz (2016), Bruce Boudreau (2008), and Bryan Murray (1984). Ron Wilson (2000) and the late Tom McVie (1977) finished third and second in their respective finalist placings.
Carbery previously won the equivalent AHL and ECHL Coach of the Year awards during his stint with the Hershey Bears (2020-21) and South Carolina Stingrays (2013-14). If he were to take home the Jack Adams Award next month, he would become the first to ever win coach of the year in all three of North America’s top professional leagues, and he’d do it with all three levels in the same organization.
While the postseason is not accounted for in the voting, Carbery also just led the Capitals to their first playoff series victory since the club won the Stanley Cup under Trotz in 2018.
