Todd Reirden (Bowling Green) is looking for a new job. The head coach of the Washington Capitals the last two years, the former NCAA and NHL defenseman was relieved of those duties on Sunday by the Capitals’ organization following another first-round postseason loss.
Reirden, 49, led Washington to an 89-46-16 overall regular-season record and two Metropolitan Division titles over the last two winters. The Capitals, however, were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each year, including a five-game loss to the New York islanders in Toronto this month, as the league restarted playing operations during the COVID-19 pandemic that had originally suspended the season back in March.
Reirden won the Stanley Cup with the Capitals in 2018, in his second season with the team as associate coach, after two years as an assistant coach, and was named head coach after the Capitals won their first NHL championship. Prior to Washington, he served four seasons as an assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins, after spending one year as an assistant and one-and-a-half-years as head coach with Pittsburgh’s top minor-league affiliate, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL).
Reirden, a 6-foot-5 native of Deerfield, Ill., skated on defense for Bowling Green from 1990 to 1994, after prepping with both Deerfield Academy and Tabor Academy in New England. In four NCAA seasons with the Falcons, he collected 24 goals and 52 assists for 76 points to go with 160 penalty minutes in 140 career contests.
Drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the 12th round of the 1990 NHL Entry Draft, Reirden went on to play professionally from 1994 to 2007. He collected 11-36—47 points and 181 PIM in 188 career NHL outings, including five Stanley Cup playoff games, while manning the blueline for Edmonton, St. Louis, Atlanta and Phoenix. He also played in the ECHL, AHL and IHL, and finished his playing career with one season apiece in Germany and Austria.
Following his retirement as an active player, Reirden joined BGSU as an assistant coach for the 2007-08 campaign before re-joining the professional ranks the following season as an assistant with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.