Taylor Chorney has his first major gig since retiring from professional hockey in 2021.
The former Washington Capitals defenseman was hired by the Colorado Avalanche to serve on the team’s player development staff.
Chorney will be a player development coach and amateur scout, joining Brian Willsie (director of player development) and Craig Billington (director of goaltending evaluation/special projects).
Notably, all three members of the development staff have suited up with the Capitals during their playing careers. Willsie appeared in 132 games for Washington across two stints, including a career-best 19-goal season alongside rookie Alex Ovechkin in 2005–06. Willsie was also Ovechkin’s first road roommate. Billington finished his playing career in Washington, appearing in 47 games from 1999 to 2003 and serving as a backup to Olie Kolzig.
Chorney has been retired since 2021, when he finished his playing career with the ICE Hockey League’s EC Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.
Chorney formerly played parts of three seasons with the Capitals from 2015 to 2018, serving primarily as a depth defenseman. He appeared in 97 regular-season games, recording 15 points (3g, 12a), before being placed on waivers in February 2018 as Washington reshaped its blue line with the additions of Michal Kempny and Jakub Jerabek at the trade deadline. Columbus claimed him, causing Chorney to narrowly miss the Capitals’ Stanley Cup run later that spring.
Despite no longer being on the roster when Washington won the Cup, Chorney remained close with his former teammates. The Capitals sounded The Chorn Horn that summer and presented him with a Stanley Cup championship ring, with Brooks Orpik telling the rearguard it was something “everybody here thinks you deserve.”
A second-round pick of the Edmonton Oilers in 2005, the defenseman played 166 NHL games over parts of eight seasons with Edmonton, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Washington, and Columbus, recording 22 points (4g, 18a). Before making the NHL, Chorney was teammates with TJ Oshie for three seasons (2005 to 2008) at the University of North Dakota, reaching the Frozen Four in each of those years. Dave Hakstol, currently an assistant coach with the Avalanche, was the bench boss of those teams.
Other members of the Avalanche’s staff that have Capitals ties include Arik Parnass, Keith Aucoin, Curtis Leschyshyn, and Miroslav Zalesak.
Parnass, the Avs’ director of analytics, worked in game-night operations for the Capitals while attending Georgetown University and later served as an assistant and correspondent for Capitals Radio, interviewing players and contributing on-air analysis. He first joined Colorado in 2016 to help build out its analytics operation — now a six-person group.
Aucoin, a pro scout for the Avalanche, played 49 regular-season games for the Capitals from 2008 through 2012, recording 22 points (6g, 16a). While in Hershey, he posted 344 points in 238 regular-season games and helped the Bears capture back-to-back Calder Cup championships in 2009 and 2010. He also earned AHL MVP honors in 2010 after leading the league with 106 points. Aucoin was enshrined in the AHL Hall of Fame in 2022.
Leschyshyn, also a pro scout, appeared in two games for the Capitals during the 1996–97 season after Washington acquired him from the Avalanche. The Capitals then quickly dealt him to the Hartford Whalers on November 9, 1996, in exchange for Andrei Nikolishin, a member of the team’s 1998 Stanley Cup Final team.
Zalesak, now Colorado’s head of European scouting, signed with the Capitals in August 2005 and participated in training camp that year. He was later assigned to Hershey before the season started and ultimately returned to Europe without appearing in a regular-season game for the Caps.
Looser ties are there as well. Derek Army, son of former Capitals assistant coach Tim Army, is an assistant for Colorado’s AHL team, the Eagles, while Travis Reirden, Todd Reirden’s son, is the team’s video coach.
