To the surprise of absolutely no one, Spencer Carbery was awarded the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s best coach for the 2024-25 season.
Per the NHL, the Jack Adams Award is presented annually “to the coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”
While his co-finalists, Scott Arniel and Martin St. Louis, were certainly worthy candidates, it’s hard to make a better case for anyone than Carbery doing just that.
A year after guiding a scrappy team with no business in the postseason to a surprise playoff spot, Carbery’s Caps underwent an incredible turnaround season in 2024-25, finishing with 51 wins, 111 points, and the top seed in the Eastern Conference. All this while having to navigate a roster that featured seven new players.
Not only did he fairly seamlessly manage to incorporate those new guys into the team – and quickly, too – but many of those players, and plenty of the organization’s existing talent, went on to have career years. In the process, Carbery also did something that we haven’t seen in DC for a bit: he made this team fun to watch again, from the style of play on the ice to the run-through-a-wall postgame locker room videos.
All this in his sophomore season behind the bench. And while the year didn’t have the storybook ending we all hoped for, it’s hard not to see the growth in the team, the optimism for next season, and just the beginning of what should be a stellar coaching career.
Congrats, Coach Carbs!!