The National Hockey League announced today that former Stingrays head coach and current Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery is one of three finalists for the Jack Adams Award, presented to the head coach who has been "adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success" as voted by members of the NHL Broadcasters Association.
Carbery, 43, first joined the Stingrays as a player midway through the 2009-08 season after then Stingrays head coach and current Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar recruited him to play for the team. Carbery served as an assistant captain on South Carolina's 2009 Kelly Cup championship team, and he also played for the Stingrays for the entire 2009-10 season. He then served as South Carolina's assistant coach for the 2010-11 season before being promoted to Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations. In Carbery's five-year tenure as head coach of the Stingrays, he compiled a record of 207-115-19-19 (.628 point percentage), helping the Stingrays qualify for the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of his five seasons. Carbery led South Carolina to two division titles, two Eastern Conference Finals appearances, and a Kelly Cup Finals appearance in 2015. In 2013-14, Carbery became the first Stingray head coach to win the John Brophy Award, which is awarded annually to the ECHL Coach of the Year.
Carbery guided the Capitals to a record of 51-22-9 (111 points) this season as the team finished the regular season first in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference and second in the NHL. The Capitals recently won their first Stanley Cup Playoffs series since 2018 and will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. Carbery is in his second season behind the bench for Washington.
A native of Victoria, BC, Carbery also spent three seasons as the head coach of the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League and won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL's most outstanding coach in 2020-21. This season, Carbery has the chance to become the first coach ever to win coach of the year awards in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL.
Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel and Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis are the other two finalists for the Jack Adams Award this season.