WHL Everett Silvertips

Mitch Love Named Assistant Coach of Washington Capitals

Published on June 22, 2023 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Everett Silvertips News Release


Former Everett Silvertips player and coach Mitch Love has been named to the Washington Capitals staff as an assistant coach ahead of the 2023-24 season.

Love, 39, will serve under first-year head coach Spencer Carbery and will primarily handle the Capitals' defensive corps. Love heads to D.C. by way of the Calgary Flames' AHL affiliate, the Calgary Wranglers (formerly the Stockton Heat). He won back-to-back Louis A.R. Pieri Awards as AHL Coach of the Year in 2022 and 2023, helping lead the Wranglers to a league-best 51-17-3-1 record last season.

Per the Washington Capitals' official press release:

Love became just the third coach in AHL history to win back-to-back Pieri Awards and the first to do so in his first two seasons in the league.

Under Love last season, Calgary ranked first in the AHL in goals against per game (2.42) and penalty kill percentage (85.1%) and fourth in goals for per game (3.56). In 2021-22, Stockton ranked third in the AHL in goals against per game (2.72) and finished with the league's second-best record. In two seasons as head coach, Love complied a record of 96-33-8-3 and won two Pacific Division titles.

Internationally, Love was an assistant coach on Canada's gold-medal winning team at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship and served in the same role at the 2021 tournament, earning a silver medal.

Love played for the Everett Silvertips from 2003-05, acquired via trade from the Swift Current Broncos prior to the Tips' inaugural season. Love played 129 games with Everett, accumulating 21 goals, 35 assists and 305 penalty minutes. His eight points in 21 playoff games, coupled with punishing defensive play, helped lead the Silvertips to the WHL Final in 2004. He was named captain the following season.

Following his junior career, Love played six seasons of professional hockey, five of which were spent in the AHL where he appeared in 278 games.

Love returned to the Silvertips organization as an assistant coach from 2011-18, culminating in Everett's second run to the league final in 2018. He went on to serve as head coach of the WHL's Saskatoon Blades from 2018-21. On Nov. 22, 2019, he became the first- and to date, only- Silvertip to ever have his number raised to the rafters (#2).

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