Boston Bruins to interview Leafs assistant coach for their vacant head coaching gig
Spencer Carbery has been very quickly making his way up the coaching ranks in the NHL. After a college career and 6 ECHL seasons as a player, Carbery moved behind the bench. After just one season as assistant coach for the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL, he was promoted to head coach and director of hockey operations. While in that position, he won ECHL coach of the year twice. Then, moving on to Hershey in the AHL, he led to the team to the best regular season record and an AHL coach of the year within just 3 seasons.
That was when the Leafs hired him, and boy, has the league taken notice. Two seasons ago, the Leafs' powerplay inexplicably started the season on fire and to say it dropped off would be an understatement. They spent time in the first half of the season among the league's best, but completely dried up by the time they would face Montreal in the playoffs, including Marner famously going 100 games without a powerplay goal.
Enter Spencer Carbery. Without changing their top powerplay line at all, Carbery's version of it quickly rose to the top of the league and stayed there all season long. To do that with a Leafs core that was becoming infamous for blowing game breaking moments, Carbery's powerplay was a driving force in so many of the Leafs wins this year.
Just in this off-season so far, Carbery has been linked to Philadelphia, Chicago, and now Boston for head coaching positions.
Jim Montgomery, Jay Leach, Joe Sacco, Spencer Carbery and David Quinn are scheduled to interview with the Bruins.� Joe McDonald (@JoeyMacHockey) June 15, 2022
All 3 teams are moving to younger cores of players, with whom Carbery has been able to communicate with effectively throughout his career. When the Leafs hired Carbery, this is what Sheldon Keefe had to say about him:
The Leafs front office is one of the best at helping develop young talent, and that's not just limited to on-ice products. DJ Smith also got his NHL break as an assistant coach in Toronto, before being hired as Ottawa's head coach after 4 seasons. He hasn't seen a ton of success there yet as a team, but it's well known that their younger players love playing for him and are developing well. The forward thinking Toronto Maple Leafs are moving the NHL away from the Old Boys Club, and the next generation of NHL players are going to thrive from it.
