It wasn’t the best of endings for the Capitals in the 2024-25 season, bowing out of the playoffs after a shock upset loss to the Carolina Hurricanes. The fans didn’t expect it, not after their excellent regular season combined with Ovechkin’s record-breaking. And especially not after the good work Spencer Carbery had been putting in until the Hurricanes series. In fact, that excellent work has now been formally recognized, and what do you know, the Washington Capitals head coach has become a history maker.

NHL’s official Twitter handle shared the special news on June 7: “Spencer Carbery is the first individual to ever earn coach of the year honors in the NHL, AHL and ECHL.” And their caption was equally apt: “Successful at every level”. This happened after the NHL named Carbery the winner of the Jack Adams Award, which is given to “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.” The decision was made by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

Earning the Coach of the Year honors in 3 different leagues only implies how well Carbery understands the job. The Capitals head coach (HC) would win his first Coach of the Year award in 2013-14 (the John Brophy Award) when he was with Washington Capitals affiliate, South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL. In fact, Spencer Carbery was the winningest coach in South Carolina history.

After that came his brief stints with Saginaw Spirit and Providence Bruins. Until he became the HC at Hershey Bears, yet another affiliate of the Capitals. And here, he received the AHL’s best head coach award (Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award) in 2020-21. In that campaign, he led the Bears to a 24-7-2-0 record in the regular season, with a .758 points percentage as they finished top of the AHL standings. Carbery’s coaching saw the Bears lose just one game on home ice during regulation time.

He was already being touted as a future NHL HC material by many at that time. And they have indeed been proven right, and then some. And now, after a competent Washington Capitals season, Carbery has been bestowed with the highest honor. Achieving 81 first-place votes from 103 ballots cast, the 43-year-old has won the Jack Adams Award in 2025, thereby entering a very exclusive list, in fact where he is the only one.

This comes on the back of a great regular season campaign in which the Capitals improved their points tally by 20 points from the 2023-24 regular season. And that saw them register 111 points, the 2nd-highest points in the overall NHL, just behind President’s Trophy winner Winnipeg Jets.

In fact, Carbery has been doing an amazing job at the Capitals since he took over in 2023.

Washington Capitals have kept progressing since Spencer Carbery took over

Taking charge of the top position in May 2023, Carbery had the task to take the team into the playoffs. The previous 2022-23 campaign was disastrous, with the Metropolitan Division team finishing as low as 6th in the table. The former Stingrays player quickly got down to work and turned things around. In the first season, the points tally improved by 11 as they clinched a playoff berth as a wildcard team.

In the 2024-25 season, he improved further, the biggest improvement showing in goals scored per game. They had 3.49 in the 2024 regular season, placing them 2nd overall in the NHL. That was a marked improvement from the previous season when they were 28th in ‘goals scored’ count. They also improved as a defensive unit in 2024-25, finished tied-eighth in goals against per game (2.79). This was much less than 3.07 in 2023-24 (16th in the NHL).

That’s not all. The 1st round win against the Montreal Canadiens in the 2025 playoffs was their first playoff series win after 2018. Yep, the Capitals haven’t been doing that well, but with Spencer Carbery, they have some aspirations. As for how the Capitals HC is feeling about his felicitation, Carbery had this message for his fans: “In the ultimate team sport as a coach, you hate things that direct attention toward. Our support staff and obviously our players, all those people deserve so much credit for this award.”

A classy head coach and thoughtful, the Capitals are in good hands. Let’s see how they handle the 2025 offseason.