Washington Capitals: Top 3 head coaching candidates
1. Peter Laviolette
The best coach for the Washington Capitals right now could be Peter Laviolette. He’s a veteran head coach who has been in the league for a very long time. Laviolette is perhaps best known as the guy who took the Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, and Nashville Predators to the Stanley Cup Final. He won it with the Hurricanes in 2006.
Anyone who has had Laviolette as a coach will tell you he gets immediate results. Every team he’s been hired by improved quite a bit in their first year and saw that improvement stick for at least one more year, and in some cases, two or three more years. This excludes his time with the New York Islanders.
Right now, the Capitals need a coach who’s going to get them back to being Stanley Cup contenders. They need someone who’s going to milk every last drop they can out of the Caps core. I think Laviolette is the best candidate for that reason.
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Does Laviolette have his issues? Sure. But he’s the least flawed of the major head-coaching candidates who are available. Like Gallant, Laviolette might be waiting for the head coaching job in Seattle. That’s a pretty juicy opportunity. But one has to think if the Capitals expressed interest in him, it would be a very hard offer to turn down.