Washington Capitals hire Peter Laviolette as new head coach

After a couple poor playoff follow-ups to their Stanley Cup win, the Washington Capitals have hired Peter Laviolette as their next head coach.

A few days after a second straight first round playoff exit, the Washington Capitals fired coach Todd Reirden. On Tuesday morning, the team announced Peter Laviolette will be the their next head coach.

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan was among those to report Laviolette will get a three-year deal, and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reported it’ll be worth just under $15 million (a shade under $5 million per year).

Laviolette has 18 seasons of experience as a head coach, with a 637-425-123 regular season record. That win total is 16th all-time. He most recently spent five-and-half seasons with the Nashville Predators, where he had a .616 winning percentage, but he was fired after a 19-15-7 start this season.

Laviolette won a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, with two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final on his resume (2010 with the Philadelphia Flyers, 2017 with the Predators).

After winning the Stanley Cup in 2018, the Capitals replaced Barry Trotz (who left for the New York Islanders amid a contract dispute) with one of his top assistants in Reirden. Washington went back toward experience in looking for their next coach, with rumored interest in Gerard Gallant and Mike Babcock before deciding Laviolette would be the guy.

General manager Brian MacLellan’s statement mentions experience in the first sentence, followed by references to Laviolette bringing structure and a respected coaching pedigree. Even in the NHL, hiring the opposite of what you had applies to coaching hires.

The Capitals are set to say goodbye to free agent goaltender Braden Holtby, who just had the worst season of his career. But other than that, barring some big trades, they will run it back with the same core group next season. Laviolette will be tasked with coaxing the best collective performance out of that group again, and his broad resume suggests he was the best guy for the job.