After some speculation, Washington made it official by hiring Spencer Carbery to be their new head coach. Carbery has spent that last couple of years behind the bench of the Toronto Maple Leafs helping out Sheldon Keefe. Before that, he was the head coach of Washington's AHL affiliate, so he's a name very familiar with the organization. He replaces Peter Laviolette after Washington missed the postseason for the first time in nine years.

As for the kind of impact Carbery can have, well, it probably isn't even up to him. Because of various injuries sustained before and during the season, the Caps got a grand total of 170 games from TJ Oshie, Nicklas Backstrom, Tom Wilson, and John Carlson. The only player in that group that will be under 33 years old next season is Wilson, who will be 29, and power forwards do not age gracefully. Regardless of the quality of Carbery as a coach, if those guys are injured for half the season, or they don't rebound to their level of play from 2-3 years ago, it won't really matter.

Laviolette was a coach who liked to push the pace unless they were losing. With the NHL incorporating more forechecking and playmaking tactics over the last few years, being able to convert an aging core from one of pace to one of quality – something like the New York Rangers – should be his focus. How, exactly, he chooses approach the team's offence is up to him.

One problem with trying to figure out what he might do, and it applies to other coaches like him that get hired, is we don't have a recent track record of how he'll approach things. The fact that he was the architect of the Toronto power play tells us nothing. He may be familiar with Rasmus Sandin, which is nice, but it doesn't matter for fantasy unless Carlson gets hurt again. How Carbery coached in the AHL two years ago also doesn't tell us how he'll coach in the NHL today. Unless he was way ahead of the curve to begin with, if he hasn't changed his approach to coaching over the last couple years, he's fallen behind. I wish there was a better answer here but I'm waiting to see what happens in training camp and exhibition games before I even think of formulating an opinion on how he'll fare.

The last note I'll make is that in Carbery's final season with Hershey, Connor McMichael led the team in goals and points, averaging 3.8 shots per game. If Carbery can get the upside out of McMichael, that'll be a huge win for when this roster turns over in 2-3 years.