New AHL coach is Claremont grad
Claremont alumnus to guide Hershey Bears, principal farm club of Stanley Cup champs
Spencer Carbery had dreams of skating in the NHL when he was coming up through Saanich Minor Hockey, Racquet Club, Peninsula Panthers in Junior B and Cowichan Valley Capitals of the BCHL.
The Claremont Secondary graduate remains on trajectory to get there — but on the bench, instead.
Carbery is one step away, after being named the 26th head coach of the historic Hershey Bears, now entering their 80th season of operation in the American Hockey League. Hershey, Pennsylvania, bills itself as the “Sweetest Place on Earth” and is known mainly for its famous chocolate and minorpro hockey.
The Bears have won a record 11 Calder Cup championships since joining the AHL in 1938-39. They’re the league’s longesttenured franchise.
“You can feel the passion, pride and energy in this building [Giant Center, the home arena for the Bears]. It is very evident this is a hockey town that cares deeply about the team and winning,” Carbery said in his introductory press conference as the Bears’ head coach.
“I will do everything I possibly can to continue the winning tradition that has been established here.”
The Hershey appointment continues Carbery’s rapid ascent on the bench. At 36, the Islander becomes the second-youngest head coach in the AHL.
That’s nothing new. Carbery was named head coach of the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL at 29, making him the youngest head coach in pro hockey at the time, and went on to be named winner of the John Brophy Award as 2013-14 ECHL coach of the year.
Carbery guided the Stingrays to the 2015 ECHL playoff final, losing the Kelly Cup in the seventh game to the Allen Americans. He made the playoffs in all five seasons with the Stingrays and finished with an ECHL regular-season coaching record of 207-115-38.
He learned from the best growing up in the capital region, albeit in a different sport. Dad Bryan Carbery is the retired head coach of the University of Victoria golf team and guided the Vikes to four RCGA Canadian university titles in his 13 years at the helm on Ring Road.
Spencer Carbery, hardly surprisingly, was a two-sport athlete. The Uplands member became the Lower Island agegroup golf champion at 14.
His hockey-playing days led him to NCAA Div. 1 at AlaskaAnchorage and later Div. III St. Norbert College, leading to a minor-pro playing career in the ECHL that culminated with a Kelly Cup championship with South Carolina in 2009. Through it all, Carbery voraciously watched and listened to his various coaches and ate up everything they said and did.
After the pros in the ECHL, Carbery gave major-junior a try as head coach of the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League in 2016-17. That led to his first Hockey Canada national team assignment, when he was named an assistant coach with Team Canada Black for the 2017 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge last fall in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
He returned to the pro ranks last season as an assistant coach with the successful Providence Bruins of the AHL (45-26-5). It didn’t take long for the Bears to offer him their head coaching position.
Carbery has familiarity with the Washington Capitals organization, whose farm teams are the Bears in the AHL and Stingrays in the ECHL. While with the latter, Carbery coached three members of the 2018 Stanley Cup champion Capitals: Nathan Walker, Pheonix Copley and Philipp Grubauer. He also coached many current Capitals prospects in Hershey, including Tyler Lewington, Kelly Zajac, Dylan Margonari, Garrett Mitchell, Vitek Vanecek and Wayne Simpson.
“It’s truly a privilege and honour to be part of the storied Hershey organization and entrusted to lead a new chapter in Bears hockey and to prepare the next wave of Caps prospects,” Carbery said.
Carbery and his wife, Casey, have two young children. The life of a career hockey coach is, by necessity, nomadic. Carbery thanked his family for “allowing me to chase my dream of one day coaching in the NHL.”