Adam Oates has never been an NHL head coach before. His coaching experience at the NHL level consists of three years as an assistant coach, one with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the last two with the New Jersey Devils.
However, his most important qualification as the new head coach of the Washington Capitals may have come on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after he was named head coach of the team he played for from 1997 to 2002.
Oates was announced on Tuesday as a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame's Class of 2012, joining Mats Sundin, Pavel Bure and Joe Sakic. He'll be inducted on Monday, November 12, with the festivities in Toronto being interrupted by a home game against the Maple Leafs on November 10.
Naturally, being a supremely talented and accomplished player is no guarantee of success as a coach. On that score, Oates' most important credentials may be the ones he earned this past season in New Jersey, when he was a key member of Pete DeBoer's coaching staff as the Devils advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals. When informed of the Capitals' hire on Tuesday, Devils players like Zach Parise and Adam Henrique expressed confidence in Oates' success in Washington and credited him immensely for New Jersey's success this past season, which bodes well for Oates' prospects in his first head coaching job.
For the Captials, however, Oates' credentials as a player are a key element of the package he brings to the table in Washington, as one of his primary duties as head coach will be to the get the best out of Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin.
Ovechkin, who will be 27 when the 2012-13 season begins, had his worst scoring season in the NHL in 2011-12, finishing with 38 goals and 27 assists while bristling against the demands of coaches Bruce Boudreau and Dale Hunter, with the latter's defense-first approach providing an ill fit for the two-time winner of both the Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL's top goal-scorer and the Hart Trophy as league MVP.
It's not certain, of course, what will get Ovechkin back to his 100-point form - he reached that plateau four times in his first five NHL seasons - but playing under Oates can't hurt. After all, if there was a coach on the market who would be able to form a productive relationship with Ovechkin, it would be Oates, who commands a certain level of respect as a Hall of Fame player.
Boudreau played just 141 games in the NHL. Hunter had a much longer career, and was certainly a capable point-producer with 1020 points in 1407 regular-season games, but his legacy is one of toughness, with 3,563 penalty minutes in his career. Oates, a gifted playmaker who helped Brett Hull to his greatest scoring success as a teammate in St. Louis, can connect with Ovechkin in a way that Boudreau and Hunter never could.
Oates, of course, was never a "can't miss" superstar like Ovechkin. He was an undrafted prospect who earned his shot in the NHL with three outstanding years of college hockey at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (where he won an NCAA Championship in 1985), and then found his way in the NHL as a free agent with the Detroit Red Wings. Still, his offensive credentials speak for themselves, putting Oates in an excellent position to get the most out of Washington's franchise player.
This, of course, is all theory. The fact remains that Oates is untested as an NHL head coach, and his tenure with the Capitals could turn out to be a spectacular failure. For now, however, the idea of Oates coaching Ovechkin and the Caps has a certain attraction to it that should be encouraging for Capitals fans.
