Caps coach tenders abrupt resignation after team's first-ever Stanley Cup

By Ross Kelly June 18, 2018 at 1:42pm

Just 11 days after leading the Washington Capitals to their first-ever Stanley Cup win, Barry Trotz has resigned as head coach.

“After careful consideration and consultation with my family, I am officially announcing my resignation as head coach of the Washington Capitals,” Trotz said in a statement on Monday.

The Caps released their own statement, confirming that they’ve accepted Trotz’s resignation. Neither side indicated what the reason for the resignation is, but Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet shed some light on Trotz’ departure.

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1008785444228587522

https://twitter.com/FriedgeHNIC/status/1008786044156764160

Just days after winning the Stanley Cup, Trotz proclaimed he wanted to return and was even thinking of back-to-back Cups during the team’s championship parade as he proclaimed, “We’ll do it again.”

But General Manager Brian MacLellan was less sure of Trotz returning despite the sides discussing a contract extension.

Are the Capitals making a mistake by not re-signing Barry Trotz?

MacLellan was asked how confident he was that the team would be able to re-sign Trotz, and the GM said, “I don’t know. We’ll find out.”

Trotz recently completed his fourth season in Washington and earned $6 million over the life of his contract, or $1.5 million per season.

By comparison, other Cup-winning head coaches such as Chicago’s Joel Quenneville, Montreal’s Claude Julien and Toronto’s Mike Babcock all will make at least $5 million next season.

Trotz compares favorably with all other active coaches and he is steadily creeping up the leaderboard for most wins in NHL history.

Barry Trotz has resigned as Capitals head coach.

Trotz has 762 career wins, 5th-most in NHL history.

In 4 seasons under Barry Trotz, the Capitals were 205-89-34, the best record in the league. pic.twitter.com/rOm2Y2RHCB

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 18, 2018

Trotz will become the fifth head coach in the last 40 years to not return to a Stanley Cup-winning team. The others are Scotty Bowman (1979), Bob Johnson (1991), Mike Keenan (1994) and Bowman again in 2002.

As it stands, the only other NHL team with a vacancy at head coach is the New York Islanders. The Islanders finished 35-37-10 last season and missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.

If Trotz has no interest in that position, he may choose to sit out a year which would be unusual for him. He’s been an NHL head coach every season since 1998-99 when he became the first coach of the expansion Nashville Predators.

In addition to Trotz now being a free agent, the Capitals will also have to address the status of their player free agents, including John Carlson and Michal Kempny.

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