The Washington Capitals have found their replacement for Kirk Muller, who the team let go on April 27.
Thursday, the Capitals announced that they hired Ray Bennett to be an assistant coach on Spencer Carbery’s staff. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
With Bennett now aboard, Carbery’s group for next season is set, which includes assistant coaches Scott Allen and Patrick Wellar, skills coach Kenny McCudden, goaltending coach Scott Murray, assistant coach/video Brett Leonhardt, and video coach Emily Engel-Natzke.
Bennett, 64, has been an assistant coach in the NHL for the past 25 seasons, beginning his time in the league with the Los Angeles Kings in 1999-00. After six years in LA, Bennett then coached 10 seasons with the St. Louis Blues (2007-2017), eight seasons with the Colorado Avalanche (2017-2025), and the 2025-26 campaign with the New York Islanders as part of Patrick Roy’s staff.
Bennett arrives in Washington after being let go by the Islanders on the same day.
“The organization would like to thank Ray for his hard work and dedication to the organization last season,” the Islanders wrote in a statement.
Ahead of last season, Bennett was tasked by Roy to solve the Isles’ power play woes. He ultimately helped, but not by much, as the Islanders finished the season with the league’s third-worst power play, at 16.5 percent.
The Islanders were especially brutal on the man advantage down the stretch when they were fighting for a playoff spot, scoring just 5 goals in 34 power play opportunities (6.8 percent) in their final 12 games of the season.
Rookie defenseman Matthew Schaefer led the team with eight power-play goals. The only other player to have more than five PPGs was Bo Horvat with seven.
While the team’s 16.5 percent effectiveness was poor this past season, it was an improvement from their abysmal 12.5 percent rate in 2024-25 — the second-worst in the league.
After Roy was fired on April 5, the Isles agreed to part ways with Bennett today as Peter DeBoer sets his staff for next season. The team had previously made one other change, promoting Rocky Thompson from AHL Bridgeport.
Bennett will be tasked with improving the Capitals’ power play, which was seventh-worst in the league last season at 17.8 percent effectiveness. The team’s anemic man-advantage unit was a major factor in the Capitals missing the playoffs for the first time under Carbery. The Caps’ power play was also one of just three in the NHL to allow more than 10 shorthanded goals this past season (11), which led to a 29th-place net power-play percentage (13.3 percent).
Bennett is several years removed from lifting the Stanley Cup for the first time in his career. The Innisfail, Alberta native won a championship in 2022 as part of Jared Bednar’s staff with the Colorado Avalanche — the franchise’s third Cup in team history.
He was ultimately let go by the Avalanche after the 2024-25 season, after the team scored just three power-play goals in 22 opportunities during their two-round run in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Prior to his time as an NHL assistant coach, Bennett was a video coach for Hockey Canada. During his two years with the national team, Bennett won a gold medal at the 1999 IIHF World Women’s Championship, a silver medal with the women’s team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, and a silver medal at the 1999 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Bennett was also head coach at Red Deer College from 1995-97 and held positions with the Spokane Chiefs (scout) and Moose Jaw Warriors (assistant general manager) of the Western Hockey League (WHL), the World Junior Hockey Championship Association, and the Alberta Amateur Hockey Association.
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