The Rangers have been granted permission to speak to Maple Leafs assistant coach Spencer Carbery for their head coaching vacancy, The Post confirmed Friday morning.
First reported by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Carbery has now been approached by three teams, including the Rangers.
The Ducks and the Capitals also are interested in the two-year Toronto assistant.
It was widely reported on Friday that Kyle Dubas will not return as the Maple Leafs general manager.
This makes it all the less likely Toronto will retain head coach Sheldon Keefe, who could now be a legitimate option for the Rangers.
If the Leafs are about to embark on their own coaching search, Carbery may be a logical in-house promotion if he’s drawing all this attention around the league.
Carbery, 41, only just broke into the NHL as an assistant coach when the Maple Leafs brought him on in 2021.
He has never been a head coach at the NHL level, but he has nine seasons of experience in that role in the East Coast Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and American Hockey League.
Carbery was an assistant on Jay Leach’s staff with the AHL Providence Bruins in 2017-18.
Leach is also a potential coaching candidate for the Rangers.
When Carbery took over the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays in July 2011, after Cail MacLean left for the AHL, Carbery was the youngest head coach in the league at the time at the age of 29.
The club made it all the way to the finals in his fourth season behind the bench in 2014-15.
Despite having 10 seasons of experience as a player, spread out across the British Columbia Hockey League, Northern Collegiate Hockey Association, Canadian Hockey League and ECHL, Carbery never made it to the NHL.
Carbery’s most recent head coaching gig was with the AHL’s Hershey Bears for three seasons from 2018 to 2021.
Leading the team to the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy, which is awarded to the AHL’s regular-season champion, Carbery went on to win the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award for coach of the year.
The Rangers and former head coach Gerard Gallant mutually parted ways after losing to the Devils in seven games in the first round of the playoffs.