Laviolette won't return as Capitals coach next season
Agreement to 'mutually part ways' reached after Washington misses playoffs for 1st time since 2014
Laviolette's three-year contract expires June 30, and the Capitals said Friday they have agreed to "mutually part ways" after not qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2013-14.
"We are grateful for Peter's leadership and dedication to our organization for the last three seasons," Washington general manager Brian MacLellan said. "Peter is a first-class individual who has represented our club with integrity and guided our team through many difficult circumstances in his tenure as our head coach. We wish him all the best moving forward."
Washington was 115-78-27 in three seasons under Laviolette, including 35-37-10 this season. The Capitals finished 12 points behind the Florida Panthers for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They qualified for the playoffs eight consecutive seasons before that, including Laviolette's first two seasons, but have not won a postseason series since winning the Stanley Cup in 2018.
MacLellan said Saturday he initially planned to take some time before making a decision about whether Laviolette would return, but a meeting with the coach Friday morning sped up the process.
"I personally wanted to get through meetings with players and coaches and kind of go back to (Capitals owner) Ted (Leonis) and (president) Dick (Patrick) and make some decisions, but ended up meeting with 'Lavi' yesterday," MacLellan said. "Had a conversation and the conversation when in a certain direction and we both decided we'd make changes.
"I think he's a good coach. I think he's a good person. I like working with him. I think we were open. I guess I wanted some time with players, wanted some time with everybody around. Just get some opinions and kind of go from there."
The team dealt with a slew of injuries to key players this season, including forwards Nicklas Backstrom (hip resurfacing surgery) and Tom Wilson (ACL surgery), who each missed the first 42 games before Wilson sat out another seven after blocking a shot off his ankle Jan. 24. Defenseman John Carlson (skull fracture, severed temporal artery) missed 36 games after being struck in the head with a slap shot Dec. 23, and another six games earlier in the season (lower body).
"Obviously great man, great coach, but it's a business," forward Alex Ovechkin said. "You can see at the trade deadline, we lost friends, great hockey players (Dmitry Orlov, Lars Eller,
Garnet Hathaway
, Marcus Johansson), but it's a business. It [stinks] that we right now are in this position, but nothing you can do. It's life. You just have to move on."
Washington lost a total of 440 man-games to injury, but Laviolette did not want to use that as an excuse.
"Our job on a daily basis is to coach what we have, [for] players to play with what we have and not the what-ifs or what-we-don't-haves and there was still opportunity, I feel like, regardless of who's in the lineup in certain games," Laviolette said after a 5-4 overtime loss to the New Jersey Devils in the Capitals' season finale Thursday. "We were there, we were close, [but] it got away from us and so it's nice if you get that chance to be healthy year-round.
"Obviously, it was a grind and a tough year, but I still felt like we had players on the ice that could be successful and win and we weren't able to get that done."
Forward Nic Dowd said Laviolette talked to the players as a group Saturday morning.
"He had a little bit of a closing statement just to the players," Dowd said. "I think that's the type of person he is. He owns responsibility for himself. He's an accountable guy. I think he probably just wanted a little bit of closure and just to thank the guys, appreciate the hard work, so we appreciated that."
In 21 NHL seasons as a coach with the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and Capitals, Laviolette is 752-503-150 with 25 ties. The 58-year-old native of Franklin, Massachusetts, won the Stanley Cup with Carolina in 2006 and is one of four coaches to reach the Cup Final with three different teams (Carolina 2006; Philadelphia 2010; Nashville 2017), along with Scotty Bowman, Dick Irvin and Mike Keenan.
Laviolette's 752 wins are eighth in NHL history and most among coaches born in the United States.
"He had some tough circumstances with the amount of injuries we've had over the course of his tenure here," forward T.J. Oshie said. "But it is part of the business. … Any time you get a new voice, players for whatever reason, find a different level of motivation to go out there with a new guy who has never coached you and show him how much ice time you deserve and how much you're willing to sacrifice to win games- the type of player you are, the type of teammate you are.
"So, a new coach can change a team a lot more than a new player or a couple of new players could. So I think you'll see a chance in our mentality a little bit."
MacLellan said he wasn't sure how long it would take to hire a new coach.
"It's the day after, so we'll see how it shakes out here," he said. "We'll start looking at names and, with our group, talk about different coaches that people know and traits they have. Maybe we have to wait to talk to some assistant coaches that we think our candidates. We'll see how it goes here."
After firing Todd Reirden in 2020, MacLellan wanted a more experienced coach and hired Laviolette. He said he's open to considering less experienced candidates this time.
"I think our group is changing. We're trying to get younger," MacLellan said. "We brought in some younger players. It's going to be different in that you want a coach that can work with young guys and we're going to have a veteran group at the top that kind of needs a veteran coach. So it's going to be a challenge to find the right guy for that. Probably a combination of what we've had would be the ideal candidate. I don't know that we can find it, but we'll do the best we can."
