Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube finished 10th place in voting for the Jack Adams Award, granted to the NHL’s best head coach.
Berube received one second-place vote and two third-place votes in his first season with the Maple Leafs. Toronto won the Atlantic Division for the first time, before losing in seven games to the Florida Panthers in the second round. Berube installed a north-south system that preaches simplicity, easy exits and getting pucks to the net above all.
Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery won the award, receiving 81 first-place votes. Carbery spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Maple Leafs, under Sheldon Keefe’s supervision. Washington finished first in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, but were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs. Keefe, who joined the New Jersey Devils as their head coach, did not receive a vote.
Winnipeg Jets head coach Scott Arniel is the runner-up, while Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis finished in third place.
Carbery spoke glowingly of his experience with the Maple Leafs, in February.
“I always say this. I feel like I got a two-year masterclass in coaching in the NHL,” Carbery said. “Because, as an assistant, you’re in a secondary role. You’re in the background a little bit, you’ve got your responsibilities, you’ve got your means, but you have all this time to take in all this great information and learn from Jason Spezzas, Jake Muzzins, all these people, you get to pick their brain, Mark Giordano, too.”
“I left Toronto feeling A) grateful, B) gaining all this knowledge, and C) really confident that, okay, now I feel really comfortable,” Carbery continued. “I believed I could be an NHL head coach below, but now I feel really comfortable and confident to get on that bench as a head coach
