You can add Babcock and Gallant to the list of coaches interviewed by Caps originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan certainly seems to be doing his due diligence in his search for the team's next head coach. It was reported in August that he team had interviewed Peter Laviolette and now there are two more big names you can add to that list. Elliotte Friedman of SportsNet reported on Saturday that the team had interviewed Mike Babcock and Gerard Gallant. Both coaches are among the biggest names on the market and both certainly would fit the description MacLellan gave for what he was looking for.
Babcock is perhaps the biggest name out there with 700 wins, a Stanley Cup with Detroit in 2008, two conference championships and he also led Team Canada to two Olympic gold medals. His last stop as a head coach, however, was in Toronto where he was fired midseason. In the wake of his firing, numerous stories came out detailing some of his harsh and bizarre coaching methods such as making rookie Mitch Marner rank teammates from the hardest-working to the least and then sharing that list with the players, scratching Jason Spezza for the home opener and berating Johan Franzen to the point he had a nervous breakdown.
It has been less than a year since Babcock was fired and I expected he would need more time to rehab his image, but Friedman went on record Saturday calling Babcock, "a legitimate candidate for the position" in Washington.
RELATED: Anson Carter thinks Peter Laviolette fits a “short window” as the Caps next head coach
Gallant, meanwhile, has a 270-216-4-51 coaching record in nine years as an NHL head coach. He did a masterful job leading the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final in the team's first year, where they lost to the Caps. He was fired in January in a shocking move, but his replacement Peter DeBoer now has the Golden Knights in the conference finals.
With Laviolette, Babcock and Gallant all on the team's radar, MacLellan is certainly sending a message to the rest of the league that the Caps are going all-in on the final years of the championship window.
