Stano’s Daily: New Coaches & Cup Predictions

As we end the NHL season, teams are starting to plan ahead for next season. And for some of them, that means bringing in a new coach.

The Washington Capitals announced on Tuesday that Spencer Carbery would step in as the new head coach. Carbery spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs and had three seasons before that as the head coach of the Hershey Bears.

Washington is in an interesting spot. They still have some excellent pieces and you always want to win with Alex Ovechkin. But they’re getting older and Evgeni Kuznetsov seemingly wants out.

A retool might be necessary for this team and I’m intrigued to see what Carbery can do with them. If they do intend to start a mini rebuild, I imagine he’ll get a lot of leash to work with.

The other big NHL coach news came out of Nashville, where the Predators announced that head coach John Hines wouldn’t be back next season.

It was then reported that New Jersey Devils assistant coach and former Florida Panthers head coach, Andrew Brunette will be the new coach in Nashville.

Brunette had a lot of success in Florida given the circumstances, leading them to a President’s Trophy after taking over for Joel Quenneville.

In a similar spot to the Capitals, the Predators have some good pieces, but are aging and might not have enough to truly compete.

Hiring Brunette makes me think they take one more big run with this core though.

Cup Predictions:

The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun recently published an article polling 19 NHL executives to get their opinions on who would win the Cup.

Thirteen said the Vegas Golden Knights, Seven voted the Panthers and one was a push.

The main reasoning for Vegas to win the cup was their depth up front and their big defenses ability to stop Florida from dominating in and around the net.

Most of the executives who voted for Florida did so because of Sergei Bobrovsky and Matthew Tkachuk’s stellar play in the playoffs.

NationalHockeyNow:

WashingtonHockeyNow: Carbery officially in as the Capitals coach.

NashvilleHockeyNow: The reports on Hynes out and Brunette in from Nashville.

DetroitHockeyNow: Should we expect some noise out of Detroit this summer?