Peter Laviolette sees the Washington Capitals as one other alternative to take a workforce to the Stanley Cup Last and attempt to win all of it once more.

The Capitals see Laviolette because the skilled, regular hand who might help them contend for an additional title in what may very well be the ultimate few years of their championship window.

Washington made Laviolette the primary Stanley Cup-winning coach employed within the franchise’s 46-year historical past on Tuesday – and solely the second with earlier NHL head teaching expertise in the course of the Alex Ovechkin period.

Both sides considers this an ideal match.

”You will have a terrific solid of expertise that is massive and robust and may play the sport aggressive and has an opportunity to achieve success on a nightly foundation,” Laviolette mentioned. ”I am excited to go in and be right here and be part of this and add any layer that I can as a coach to try to assist get to that subsequent step.”

Laviolette, 55, takes over for Todd Reirden, a first-time head coach who was fired following a back-to-back first-round playoff exits. Reirden was the highest assistant below Barry Trotz when the Capitals received their lone title in 2018.

Getting Laviolette within the fold is an acknowledgment that this older, veteran workforce might use a coach with the identical qualities and expertise.

”We really feel very lucky to have the ability to rent somebody of Peter’s caliber and to have him accessible at a time of want for our group,” common supervisor Brian MacLellan mentioned. ”His monitor report with totally different organizations, he is been challenged quite a lot of instances of getting groups which have totally different personalities within the locker room and on the ice and he is been capable of adapt to totally different teams and achieve success within the league.”

Laviolette coached the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006 and took the Philadelphia Flyers to the ultimate in 2010 and the Nashville Predators in 2017. In Nashville, he succeeded Trotz, who joined the Capitals in 2014 and left in a contract dispute after teaching them to the Cup.

Fired by the Predators in January after 5 1/2 seasons, Laviolette plans to adapt his system and strategies to his new gamers.

”I believe whenever you take over a workforce, you are available with an open thoughts and a clean slate on the workforce and the gamers and the person personnel,” Laviolette mentioned. ”After which from there it is about constructing your id on the ice, setting a regular of what you count on every day and dealing collectively all through the course of the yr to try to put together your self for the playoffs.”

Laviolette’s job won’t simply be getting the Capitals to the playoffs however attempting to place them ready to contend for the Stanley Cup. Ovechkin will probably be 35 when subsequent season begins, has one yr left on his contract and will probably be on his seventh coach since he entered the league in 2005.

Ovechkin might signal an extension that strains him up with heart Nicklas Backstrom’s new contract. Wingers T.J. Oshie and Tom Wilson, heart Evgeny Kuznetsov and defenseman John Carlson are all signed long run, whereas goaltender Braden Holtby is about to grow to be a free agent, handing Ilya Samsonov the beginning job.

”Yeah, I might count on him to go to free company,” MacLellan mentioned of Holtby. ”The goalie market might be a bit of unusually deep this yr. I talked to his agent final week briefly about the place he is at and the form of alternatives he is searching for. I might assume he goes to free company and we’ll maintain in touch with him all through the free company interval to see if he is getting what he desires.”

Laviolette is the taskmaster coach the Capitals have not had since Dale Hunter in 2011-12. Hunter helped Washington attain Sport 7 of the second spherical, a hump they could not recover from till Trotz coached them to the Cup two years in the past.

”Coming to Washington, that is my precedence is to try to construct one thing the place when the gamers take the ice the really really feel like they’re invincible,” Laviolette mentioned.

Laviolette, whose first head job was with the New York Islanders, ranks 16th in all-time teaching wins with a profession report of 637-425-123. He additionally has coached the U.S. on the world championships a number of instances and was an assistant on the 2010 Olympics.

”Peter has a monitor report of building a tradition, and it is one in all his priorities,” MacLellan mentioned. ”Each me, and I assume the gamers, (know) that is an enormous energy of his transferring ahead and it is a massive cause why we employed him.”

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