Washington Capitals hire Mitch Love to be new assistant coach

The Washington Capitals have hired Mitch Love to be their assistant coach on incoming head coach Spencer Carbery’s staff.

Love was behind the bench of the Stockton Heat/Calgary Wrangles franchise for the last two seasons. Over his two seasons as head coach of the Heat and Wranglers, Love earned a combined record of 96-33-11 and led them to a conference final and a divisional final, respectively.

For those two impressive seasons, Love won two AHL coach of the year awards. It was only a matter of time before an NHL team hired him for their coaching staff. Previously, he was the assistant coach for the Everett Silvertips of the WHL. In 2018-19, he was hired to be the head coach of the Saskatoon Blades and led them to a 45-15-8 season. In his first season as a WHL head coach he coached future NHL player Kirby Dach to a highly successful campaign.

Over the next two seasons, major junior hockey like the rest of the world was disrupted by COVID-19. He coached the Blades to a 34-24-5 record in the shortened 2019-20 season. The following year he only coached 24 games but earned a 16-5-3 record in that span for the Blades.

“It doesn’t take much time to be around him to recognize that you’re in the presence of someone who is going to go on to do great things in the coaching world,” said Colin Priestner, the president and general manager of the Saskatoon Blades.

He went on in his interview with the Calgary Sun, “I told our players from the first month that we had him to enjoy our time with him because he wouldn’t be here long. I constantly told them that.”

Dustin Wolf, the highly touted goalie prospect who played for Love the last two seasons had nothing but nice things to say about his head coach, “he just wants everybody to succeed and get to the next level…I think he’s going to have a good chance to reach his next level at some point soon, as well.”

Love played five seasons in the AHL in the late 2000s, as well as six seasons in the WHL.