Former Washington Capitals coach has been exposed as having badly mismanaged some of Washington's young prospects who are now a major part of their success.
The Washington Capitals are one of the great turnaround stories in the National Hockey League this year, having gone from a bubble team who qualified for the postseason on the final day of the regular season last year to the top team in the Eastern Conference this year.
And while future Hall of Famer Alex Ovechkin continues his incredible quest toward history, the Capitals have been getting incredible contributions from young players like Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas.
Current New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, who was behind the bench for 3 years with the Capitals, has been exposed as having badly mismanaged both players in favor of lesser-performing players.
Per Russian Machine Never Breaks in 2023:
During this past season, Laviolette essentially forced top center prospect Connor McMichael to Hershey in November after refusing to play him despite him making the Opening Night roster and needing consistent game time for development purposes. Later in the season, defense prospect Alex Alexeyev found himself benched in favor of names like Matt Irwin and Dylan McIlrath. Aliaksei Protas suffered a similar fate as a healthy scratch for almost 30 percent of the schedule despite being one of the team's best process players at five-on-five.
This year, McMichael has 51 points (23G, 28A) in 65 games, while Protas has impressed by reaching a new career-best 28 goals (including his 1st-career hat trick on Tuesday night).
During Laviolette's tenure with the Capitals, they were eliminated in the Stanley Cup Playoffs two years straight in the opening round and missed altogether in 2022-23; he was let go after that and subsequently hired by the Rangers.
After leading the Rangers to the President's Trophy last year, New York is facing the real possibility of missing the postseason this year; Laviolette has also faced immense scrutiny and even heavy rumours of being let go.
