WASHINGTON, D.C. — Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe knew a lot about Spencer Carbery before the two worked together for two seasons.
But when the Maple Leafs had an opening for an assistant coach in the summer of 2021, Keefe admitted he was hesitant to offer him the position.
"I was a little reluctant to ask him if he would be an assistant because of how much I respected him as a head coach," Keefe said on Monday.
Keefe had coached against teams run by Carbery when both were coaching in the American Hockey League. Before accepting an assistant coaching position with the Leafs, Carbery won the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award for coach of the year after leading the Hershey Bears to the best regular season record in 2020-21.
Insight into Keefe's coaching style
Carbery was hired by the Capitals this past summer to become the club's head coach. Despite Keefe's fear that Carbery may potentially be over-qualified for the assistant position, the Caps bench boss felt he learned a lot from Toronto's head coach.
"A lot of the ways he sees the game, I’ve learned a ton. Bench management. There are some unique things that he does a little bit differently than some other coaches and (I) picked some of those up," Carbery said of Keefe. I could think about 100 different things that I’ve incorporated into my coaching style that I learned from him"
Carbery also provided some insight into why Keefe likes to experiment in the ways he did like when William Nylander was moved to center or last season with forward Mitch Marner took some shifts on defense.
"Maybe you use it and maybe you don’t but it’s always trying to push the envelope," Carbery said. "At the end of the day, it’s trying to find the best for your hockey team. He’s as good as anyone I’ve ever met at doing that."
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