NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Nashville Predators fired coach John Hynes on Tuesday, moving on from him more than six weeks after missing the playoffs.
Incoming general manager Barry Trotz announced his decision hours after reports emerged that Hynes had been informed he was out and Andrew Brunette was expected to be hired to replace him as coach. The team announced only the dismissals of Hynes and assistant Dan Lambert.
“John Hynes is a good man and a good hockey coach,” Trotz said in a statement. “He did an outstanding job after the trade deadline with our team, especially with our young players, and he is a well-prepared, hard-working coach who will continue to grow in the NHL. After our year-end meetings and some additional evaluation, it was time to change the voice and time to go in a different direction.”
Hynes is out 3 1/2 years since becoming a midseason replacement when David Poile fired Peter Laviolette in January 2020. Nashville lost in the qualifying round of the expanded playoffs later that year and was knocked out in the first round in 2021 and ’22, the latter of which was the first time the team was swept in 15 postseason appearances.
Missing the playoffs by three standings points this year spelled the end for Hynes, but it also came after he did not develop young talent up to the organization’s expectations.
Nashville gave up on onetime highly touted prospect Eeli Tolvanen, who at age 23 scored 16 goals for Seattle after getting claimed off waivers.
Hynes’ departure also comes after Poile held a fire sale before his final trade deadline, sending away several players signed long term or under team control beyond the season: top-pairing defenseman Mattias Ekholm and forwards Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter and Tanner Jeannot.
Those moves cleaned much of the slate for Trotz, who is moving into the front office after more than two decades in coaching. He spent his first 15 years in the NHL coaching the Predators, from their inception in 1998 until 2014, a second consecutive season out of the playoffs.
Trotz coached Brunette for four seasons with the Portland Pirates in the AHL.
CAPITALS: Spencer Carbery got his start in coaching in the minors with the Washington Capitals watching closely.
They liked what they saw, and they brought him back to fill the job they envisioned he would get.
The Capitals hired Carbery as their next coach, ending their search for Peter Laviolette’s successor by landing on a favorite of the organization who in recent years had become one of the NHL’s most intriguing candidates. He now is tasked with getting Washington back in the playoffs with an aging roster and extending the organization’s run of success a few more years while Alex Ovechkin chases Wayne Gretzky’s goals record.
“Spencer is one of the best young coaches in the game who’s had success at every level at which he has coached,” GMr Brian MacLellan said in a statement. “We feel his leadership, communication skills, ability to develop players and familiarity with our organization will be a tremendous asset as he makes this next step in his coaching career.”
Carbery spent the past two seasons as an assistant with the Toronto Maple Leafs, running the power play that ranked second in the league over that time. Before the Leafs hired him, he was considered the heir apparent to Laviolette because of his time with the Capitals’ top minor league affiliate, the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears.
When Hershey VP of hockey operations Bryan Helmer was interviewing candidates for his head-coaching gig in 2018, he asked Carbery how long until he saw himself in that kind of role in the NHL. Carbery gave himself five years and nailed that projection.
Carbery coached Hershey for three years before getting the NHL promotion to Sheldon Keefe’s staff in Toronto. At the time, there wasn’t an opening for an assistant in Washington.
There is now, and Carbery at 41 usurps Keefe as the youngest coach in the league after going from a Capitals’ homegrown prospect who began with their ECHL team in South Carolina to one of the hottest names on the market. He interviewed with the San Jose Sharks for their vacancy last year and multiple others this spring.
The Capitals got him back before a rival team could scoop him up. They chose Carbery from a pool of candidates that also included former captain-turned-Tampa Bay assistant Jeff Halpern, Philadelphia associate coach Brad Shaw and others with more experience.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
