Barry Trotz wanting to stay with the Capitals isn’t all good news
With his first Stanley Cup win after 19 years, Barry Trotz has made it clear he wants to remain as head coach of the Washington Capitals, but that decision could cause some inner turmoil.
The 19-season wait for a Stanley Cup is over for Barry Trotz, and it came during the final year of his contract with the Washington Capitals. There were questions about his return, but he had indicated he wants to stay with the organization.
Normally, the news that your Stanley Cup winning head coach who is also fifth all time in wins by a head coach would be unequivocally great news for a team, but the decision for Trotz to remain at the helm could cause some internal issues with the Capitals coaching staff.
During his exit interviews on Wednesday, Barry Trotz confirmed with reporters that his intention for next season is to remain with the Capitals.
“I do want to be back,” Trotz said. “There are some things that we have to work out. I’ve talked to Mac [Brian MacLellan]. If we can get them worked out, then there’s no question. I love the group of guys. I love the situation I’m in with the team, the location for my son and my wife and all that. So all that’s in place.”
Under the four year reign of Barry Trotz as head coach, the Capitals have won the division for three straight years, two Presidents’ Trophies, a playoff series every single year and now the first Stanley Cup in franchise history. In his prior 19 seasons as a head coach of both the Nashville Predators and Capitals, Trotz had never advanced past the second round until this year.
In all likeliness if the Capitals had not won the Stanley Cup this postseason, Trotz would almost certainly have been let walk to free agency with the lack of playoff success on his resume and the brief rumors that he and management didn’t get along that well. There were rumors that certain well-timed wins during the season saved his job.
Capitals management gave Trotz the “win or leave” treatment and refused to extend him before the playoffs. Now that Trotz has led the Capitals to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history and is beloved by the locker room and fans alike, they’d have some questions to answer if they let him go now. MacLellan said during his exit interview that if Trotz wants to be back, he will be back.
But this decision from Trotz to stay isn’t all good news, and will have repercussions for the Capitals that Trotz hinted at during his interviews.
“There’s some issues that we’ve got to just work through, and we will and we’ll go from there. We’ll just work through it.” Trotz said.
The “issue’s” name is Todd Reirden, the assistant coach of the Washington Capitals who has been patiently waiting for Trotz to be let go so he can take over as the head coach of the Capitals. Last off-season, Reirden was restricted from interviewing with other teams for head coach openings, and his contract ran one year past Trotz’s in the increasingly likely event that Trotz was let go. Defensemen like Dimitry Orlov and Michael Kempny credited the defense minded coach Reirden for their success this season, and losing him would be a blow to their blue line.
Reirden will not be restricted from interviewing with other teams this offseason if Trotz remains the head coach of the Capitals, but the only opening at the moment is with division rival New York Islanders. Meaning Washington won’t just be losing their associate coach who played a big part in their success, but they’ll likely also be helping out a division rival and filling their need for a head coach and improved defense.
Unless the Capitals can somehow convince Reirden to stay on board as the associate coach, they are going to be losing somebody this offseason.
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At the end of the day, if Barry Trotz wants to come back then management will find a way to get him back no matter the cost. The Capitals just won the Stanley Cup; how can they let the coach who led them there go? Why change what just worked? Reirden will have to be the price to pay to keep Trotz around, and Washington will just have to live with that. A Stanley Cup heals all former wounds.