📸: Katie Adler
When Spencer Carbery took the Washington job, he inherited a tricky balancing act: keep the club winning in the closing stretch of the Alex Ovechkin era while quietly laying the groundwork for whatever comes next.
Three seasons on, the verdict is clear. He has guided the Capitals to the playoffs twice in that span, helped Ovechkin chase down and break the NHL's all-time goals record, and walked away with the 2025 Jack Adams Award as the league's Coach of the Year.
On Wednesday night, The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta reported that Washington and Carbery had reached agreement on a multi-year contract — a deal that figures to keep him behind the bench beyond Ovechkin's eventual retirement.
Per sources, the Washington Capitals and head coach Spencer Carbery are in agreement on a multi-year contract extension. — David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) June 17, 2026
By Thursday morning, the club had made it official.
"We are pleased to extend Spencer to a new multi-year contract," general manager Chris Patrick said in a team release. "Since joining our organization, Spencer has played an important role in the development of many of our young players while also earning the respect and trust of our veteran leaders. His communication skills, strong relationship-building, and ability to connect with players at every stage of their careers have made him a great leader of our club.
"In addition, he has helped foster a positive and accountable culture within our team, creating an environment where players can grow and succeed. We have been extremely impressed with his commitment, professionalism, and passion for coaching, and we are excited to see him continue building on that success."
The new agreement comes with a year still left on the original four-year contract Carbery signed back in 2023.
Under his direction, Washington has gone 134-83-29 — a .604 points percentage — over the past three seasons, getting past the opening round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs once. That run came in 2025, when the Capitals bowed out to the Carolina Hurricanes in five games.
A native of Victoria, British Columbia, Carbery became the fourth-fastest coach in franchise history to reach 100 wins last season. Only Barry Trotz (159 games), Bruce Boudreau (164), and Peter Laviolette (175) got there quicker in Washington. Carbery hit the century mark in just 183 games, compiling a 100-61-22 mark in that stretch — making him the 23rd-fastest head coach in NHL history to the milestone.
A former assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carbery was brought in to succeed Peter Laviolette after the Caps missed the postseason in 2022-23. His coaching journey began in 2010-11 with the South Carolina Stingrays, where he spent six seasons wearing several hats — assistant, head coach, and director of hockey operations. From there he ran the bench for the Hershey Bears for three seasons before earning his first NHL post with Toronto in 2021.
Success has followed him at every rung of the ladder. In fact, Carbery stands alone as the only person in hockey history to be named Coach of the Year in the ECHL, the AHL, and the NHL.
This past May, he added an international credit, joining Team Canada's bench for the first time at the 2026 IIHF World Championship as an assistant on Misha Donskov's staff.