Less than two weeks after lifting the Stanley Cup, Barry Trotz is a free agent and the Washington Capitals are looking for a new coach.
Trotz on Monday stepped down as Capitals coach after a contract dispute over salary and term that leaves the newly minted Stanley Cup champions without a coach with the draft and free agency fast approaching.
General manager Brian MacLellan said the Capitals accepted Trotz’s resignation after they were unable to agree on terms on a new contract.
Winning the Stanley Cup less than two weeks ago triggered a two-year extension for Trotz that would have given him a slight bump in salary to just over US$2 million, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team did not announce the extension.
“His representative wants to take advantage of Barry’s experience and Stanley Cup win, and was trying to negotiate a deal that compensates him as one of the better coaches in the league, top four or five coaches,” MacLellan said at a news conference in Arlington, Virginia. “I think the five-year term is probably a sticking point. You have a coach that’s been here four years, you do another five, that’s nine years. There’s not many coaches that have that lasting ability. It’s a long time and it’s a lot of money to be committing to a coach.”
If Trotz was paid among the top five, it would have put him in the US$4 million-plus range annually — a price the Capitals have not been willing to pay for coaches.
“After careful consideration and consultation with my family, I am officially announcing my resignation,” Trotz said. “When I came to Washington four years ago we had one goal in mind and that was to bring the Stanley Cup to the nation’s capital. We had an incredible run this season culminating with our players and staff achieving our goal, and sharing the excitement with our fans.”
Associate coach Todd Reirden is now the leading candidate to take over for the defending champions, though MacLellan wants to go through an interview process with the former Pittsburgh assistant first.
“Todd’s a good candidate for it,” MacLellan said. “We’re going to start with Todd here and we’ve been grooming him to be a head coach whether for us or for someone else. We’ll see how the talk goes with him and then we’ll make a decision based on that. If it goes well, then we’ll pursue Todd, and if it doesn’t, we’ll open it up a little bit.”
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