Spencer Carbery named winner of 2024-25 Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year

Spencer Carbery became the fourth head coach in Washington Capitals franchise history to take home the Jack Adams Award as NHL Coach of the Year on Saturday morning.

Carbery led the 2024-25 Capitals to a first-place finish in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference. He beat out the Winnipeg Jets’ Scott Arniel and the Montreal Canadiens’ Martin St. Louis for the honor given annually to the coach who has “contributed the most to his team’s success” as voted by members of the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

The 43-year-old Victoria, British Columbia native previously won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s most outstanding coach in 2020-21 with the Hershey Bears and the John Brophy Coach of the Year Award in 2013-14 with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. Carbery is the first to ever win Coach of the Year in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL — all three of North America’s top professional leagues.

Carbery was surprised with the award by his entire family, as the Capitals set their bench boss up for a fake season recap interview with Monumental Sports Network’s Joe Beninati. At the first sight of his loved ones entering the studio behind a representative carrying the award, Carbery got visibly emotional.

Carbery’s wife, Casey, their two kids, Hudson and Vivian, along with his father, Bryan, stepmother, Bonnie, mother, Kate, and stepfather, Stephen, were among the many to help bestow the honor.

“Wow, I had no idea,” Carbery said. “I was not expecting that. Oh, my gosh. How did everyone travel here? All corners of the continent: Washington state; South Carolina; Victoria, British Columbia; Chicago, Illinois; Green Bay, Wisconsin. For them to come to DC and celebrate this moment with me, I’ll never forget that.”

Voting

Carbery was the sixth Capitals head coach since the award was first instituted in 1973-74 to be named a finalist and the first since Barry Trotz (2016) to win it. The Caps collected a 51-22-9 record during the 2024-25 regular season, winning 50 games for the first time since the 2016-17 campaign.

“In the ultimate team sport, as a coach, anything that directs attention toward you – our support staff and obviously our players, all those people deserve so much credit for this award,” Carbery added.

After his first season in charge of the Capitals last year, Carbery finished seventh in the award voting, and he commanded the Caps to far better numbers this season. The team scored 70 more goals and allowed 23 fewer goals, improving their goal differential from minus-36 to plus-57, a 93-goal jump in just one year.

The Capitals also accumulated 20 more standings points than in the previous season, becoming the first team to qualify for the playoffs after sneaking into the final spot in 2023-24.

Carbery also became the first Capitals coach to win a playoff series since Trotz led them to the 2018 Stanley Cup when the team finished off the Montreal Canadiens in this year’s first round. While the club was eliminated in the second round by the Carolina Hurricanes, Carbery’s storybook second year in charge of the Caps, which included watching Alex Ovechkin break the all-time goals record, ended with the franchise clearly headed in the right direction.

Carbery garnered 81 of the possible 103 first-place votes, finishing 215 points ahead of Arniel for first place. He was only left off one ballot.

Here’s the full press release from the NHL:

Capitals’ Spencer Carbery Wins Jack Adams Award

Washington Head Coach Honored in Special Surprise Trophy Presentation

NEW YORK (June 7, 2025) – Spencer Carbery of the Washington Capitals is the 2024-25 recipient of the Jack Adams Award as “the NHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success,” as selected by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.

Carbery believed he was sitting down for an end-of-season interview when members of his family – including his wife and children – surprised him with the trophy.

Carbery is the fourth Washington head coach to win the Jack Adams Award, following Bryan Murray (1983-84), Bruce Boudreau (2007-08) and Barry Trotz (2015-16). He also becomes the first individual to capture coach of the year honors at the ECHL, AHL and NHL levels, after winning the ECHL’s John Brophy Award in 2013-14 (South Carolina Stingrays) and the AHL’s Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award in 2020-21 (Hershey Bears).

The second-year Capitals head coach was a runaway winner, receiving 81 first-place votes among the 103 ballots cast for 464 voting points. Scott Arniel of the Winnipeg Jets garnered 16 first-place votes in finishing second with 249 points, followed by Martin St. Louis of the Montreal Canadiens (66 points).

Carbery led the Capitals (51-22-9, 111 points) to the No. 2 overall record in the NHL as well as the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 2016-17. After seeing an 11-point improvement during his first season, Washington jumped 20 points this year – the third-largest gain from 2023-24 behind only Columbus (+23) and Anaheim (+21). The Capitals also boasted a 68-goal improvement in total offense (including shootout-deciding goals), rising from 28th place in 2023-24 (220) to second this season (288). The team additionally finished among the League leaders in comeback wins (1st; 25), road points (t-1st; 53), goal differential (t-3rd; +56), penalty killing (5th; 82.0%), home points (7th; 58) and goals against (9th; 232, including shootout-deciding goals).

The best players and coaches from the 2024-25 season will be celebrated in the 2025 NHL Awards, a one-hour special that will premiere on Thursday, June 12, at 6 p.m. ET on TNT in the U.S. and Sportsnet in Canada, before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. The show will highlight all NHL Award winners this season, including Carbery and others revealed in a series of special surprise video announcements across all League platforms leading up to the June 12 program.