Spencer Carbery Named Assistant Coach of Toronto Maple Leafs

July 17, 2021

The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced the hire of Spencer Carbery as an assistant coach. Carbery spent the past three seasons as head coach of the Hershey Bears, winning the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award this past season as the AHL's Outstanding Coach.

"The Hershey Bears want to thank Spencer Carbery for his three seasons with the club," said vice president of hockey operations Bryan Helmer. "We enjoyed having Spencer and his family as members of the community, and the work that he did with our team was exceptional. He is an excellent coach who has a proven track record of winning and development, and he made our organization better in all facets during his time in Hershey. We are excited to see Spencer in the National Hockey League, and wish him and his family nothing but the best in Toronto." 

Carbery, 39, was named the 26th head coach in Hershey franchise history on June 26, 2018. In his tenure as head coach with the Bears, Carbery led the club to a record of 104-50-9-8, good for a .658 points percentage. He guided the Bears to a playoff berth and first round series win in his rookie season in 2018-19, and both his 2019-20 and 2020-21 clubs would have qualified for the playoffs had the postseason not been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Under Carbery’s guidance in 2020-21, the Bears finished atop the AHL standings with a record of 24-7-2-0, a .758 points percentage that ranks as the second-highest mark in the franchise’s 83-year history. Hershey, who had the AHL's best home record, going an impressive 14-1-2-0 at GIANT Center, allowed a league-low 2.33 goals per game in 2020-21 and ranked eighth in scoring (3.33). During the 2020-21 campaign, Carbery earned his 300th professional win on Apr. 7 at Binghamton, and tallied his 100th American Hockey League victory on May 2 versus Lehigh Valley. He became the 12th coach in franchise history to win 100 games with the Bears.

For his work, Carbery became the first Hershey head coach since John Paddock in 1988 to be named the AHL's Outstanding Coach. He was just the fifth coach in franchise history to earn this honor, joining Paddock, Doug Gibson (1979-80), Chuck Hamilton (1975-76), and Frank Mathers (1968-69).  

Carbery also sent several players to the National Hockey League to compete with the Washington Capitals this season while continuing to oversee the development of Caps prospects such as Alex Alexeyev, Garrett Pilon, Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Brett Leason, Martin Fehervary, Kody Clark, Riley Sutter and 2020-21 AHL All-Rookie forward Connor McMichael. 

The Victoria, British Columbia native spent the 2017-18 season as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, and served as head coach of Hershey’s ECHL affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays, from 2011 to 2016. He is the winningest coach in South Carolina history, and earned ECHL Coach of the Year honors in 2013-14. 

The Bears and Washington Capitals will begin the search for Hershey's new head coach immediately.