Yesterday was a match-up of finalists…for the San Jose Sharks’ head coaching job in 2022.
The Sharks hired David Quinn as their head coach last July. It’s San Jose Hockey Now’s understanding that new Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was a finalist for the position.
SJHN reported last summer that Carbery, 42, interviewed for the job, along with current San Jose assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky. Other outlets had Joe Sacco and Mike Vellucci in the running too, along with obviously Quinn.
“I think we had nine candidates,” GM Mike Grier said after choosing Quinn. “Then we went down to three and then down to two. I have to say that everyone we interviewed, interviewed very well. They were all impressive and it was tough. It was very tough to even cut it down the nine to three, it was very fine margins.”
It appears that Carbery was one of those three.
At the time, Carbery was a Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach, running their vaunted power play. This past off-season, Washington gave Carbery his first NHL head coaching nod.
So yesterday’s tilt, a 2-1 San Jose Sharks’ victory, was a good reminder of other directions that Grier could’ve gone behind the bench. The Caps took round one 3-1 in Washington on Oct. 29.
Quinn has not been able to get the Sharks out of their playoff-less spiral – last year, San Jose missed the post-season for a franchise-worst fourth-straight campaign. This year doesn’t look any more promising, with the Sharks off to a 5-15-2 start.
In all, Quinn has won just 27 of his first 104 games as San Jose head coach.
In fairness to Quinn, Grier hasn’t exactly added a lot of weapons to his arsenal, and in fact, has taken them away, trading away stars Timo Meier and Erik Karlsson for mostly futures and unwanted contracts.
Frankly, the reincarnation of Jack Adams isn’t steering these rebuilding San Jose Sharks squads into the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Carbery has the Caps off to a strong 10-6-2 start. Of course, he has a much deeper squad to play with than Quinn has in San Jose.
So it’s impossible to say how Carbery would’ve fared with the Sharks. But it’s still interesting to note his candidacy for the job, since he’s the first known candidate for it that Quinn has faced, at least head coach vs. head coach.
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