Spencer Carbery, to almost nobody’s surprise, has won the 2024-25 Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year. The Washington Capitals’ bench boss steered his club to a very strong regular season atop the Metropolitan Division.
Playoffs do not count in Adams consideration. However, despite a disappointing loss to Carolina, the Caps showed progress. The 2025 postseason marked the first time since 2018 that the Capitals advanced beyond the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
From low-profile hire to Adams Award winner
Washington’s rebuild got an unlikely boost two years ago last week with the hiring of Spencer Carbery, their former minor-league coach with the Hershey Bears of the AHL and the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL.
Carbery replaced Peter Laviolette in May 2023 following the Capitals missing the playoffs in the 2022-23 season as the team seemed to tune out their former coach in a season that featured a disastrous finish and a sub-—500 record with just 80 points.
Since his hiring, Washington has qualified for the postseason both his years with the Capitals.
During the 2023-24 season, Washington returned to the playoffs after a one-year absence. A Game 82 win in Philadelphia eked out the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. This past year, the Capitals were the first club to qualify for the postseason. Once there, the team defeated the Montreal Canadiens in Round One.
Carbery was rewarded for the team’s rapid turnaround Saturday with the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s top coach, earning 81 first-place votes, far outpacing former Washington assistant Scott Arniel with the Winnipeg Jets (16 first-place votes), Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, Blues coach Jim Montgomery and the Lightning’s bench boss Jon Cooper (2 each) – the only five coaches to get first-place votes from the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.
Big jump in 2024-25 clinched the Jack Adams
Carbery largely flew under the radar in Jack Adams Award consideration in 2023-24. This year, he was impossible to ignore.
Washington finished with a 51-22-9 record, good for 111 points and first place in the Eastern Conference standings. It marked a 20-point improvement over Carbery’s first season with the Capitals, where he finished seventh overall in the Jack Adams balloting. He received first-place votes. In hindsight, he probably should have gotten more consideration a year ago. Moreover, the Capitals have also gained 31 points in the two seasons since Laviolette’s final year in Washington.
Carbery also makes hockey history with the win, as in 2020-21 he won the American Hockey League’s Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as Hershey’s head coach, adding to his ECHL 2013-14 John Brophy Coach of the Year won in Charleston with the Stingrays. That makes Carbery the first to win all three top North American professional leagues’ top coach awards – and all three came within Washington’s system.
He also is the fourth Capitals coach to win the Adams, joining Bryan Murray (1983-84), Bruce Boudreau (2007-08), and Barry Trotz (2015-16).
Surprise success
Few saw Carbery’s hiring as a harbinger of Cup contention. Pundits expected a longer rebuild. Players, however, welcomed the change from Laviolette. The Capitals’ personnel bought into Carbery’s systems. Unlike the veteran-oriented Laviolette squads, Carbery also coaxed contributions from some of the younger players on his roster.
The youth factor: Washington boasted four players age 27 or younger among their top six scorers. The mix included a pair of 24-year-old players. Additionally, the Capitals featured five 20-plug goal scorers in the group. Seven Washington players hit the 20-goal milestone. Collectively, the team finished second in the league offensively with 286 goals. This marked an 70-goal increase from 2023-24.
While not unexpected after Washington’s quick turnaround, Carbery’s job certainly isn’t finished. He will likely be in charge of navigating the transition from Alex Ovechkin. It may happen as soon as 2026. Immediately, he must also deal with a newfound deeper expectations with the Caps’ recent success.
Time will tell how effectively the team manages these challenges. Nevertheless, Carbery’s brief tenure in Washington has helped rekindle Washington’s prominence in the NH. Carbery fully deserved the Adams honor this season.
