The Washington Capitals went above and beyond to keep Spencer Carbery behind the bench in DC long-term.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Capitals ended Carbery’s original coaching contract, which he signed in 2023, a year early. His new deal, believed to be for four years, will now start in 2026-27 and makes Carbery one of the highest-paid coaches in the league.
“So Carbery got an extension this week in Washington,” Friedman said on the 32 Thoughts podcast released on Monday. “Another coach told me, they like him so much that they ripped up — he had one year left on his current deal — they ripped it up. Normally, they’ll extend you and start in two years. Nope. They ripped it up. They ripped up his last year and gave him a new extension. I think it’s four years.”
Friedman then discussed the league’s highest-paid coaches and clicked off their believed salaries, suggesting that Carbery’s contract was near the top 5.
“I don’t know exactly where he’d rank now in terms of highest-paid coaches, but he’s in the upper echelon. I think (Jon) Cooper and (Mike) Sullivan are both around $7 million. I think (Peter) DeBoer’s at $5.75M. And then I think it’s Tocchet at $5.25M. I don’t know where Laviolette ended up [in Los Angeles], but Carbery is, I think, just below that group. He earned it, good for him.”
Carbery’s extension was officially announced by the Capitals on June 18. If the four-year term is true, he’ll be the Capitals’ head coach through the 2029-30 season.
The new contract for Carbery comes after he rose through the ranks with the Capitals’ minor-league affiliates before getting the nod to coach the Caps in 2023-24. He is the only head coach in hockey history to have won Coach of the Year at all three top levels of the sport in North America: the NHL, AHL, and ECHL.
The 43-year-old, British Columbia native led the Capitals to the playoffs in two of his first three seasons and steered Alex Ovechkin to the NHL goals record. After an aggressive overhaul during the 2024 offseason, the Capitals also finished the regular season as the Eastern Conference’s best team in 2024-25.
As the Ovechkin Era comes to a close, Carbery has developed the team’s youth while also managing its veteran players with respect, seemingly making him the perfect fit for this transition phase.
