#440 Scott Allen, Washington Capitals Asst. Coach on Being a Great Assistant, the Importance of Loyalty, and How to Make Every Individual Better in a Team Environment

Aug 1, 2025

Scott Allen, an Assistant Coach for the Washington Capitals, shares his extensive coaching journey with over 25 years of experience. He dives into the importance of loyalty and building strong relationships with players. Allen discusses personalized coaching strategies tailored to individual learning styles and the mental resilience needed in hockey. He emphasizes the intense demands of striving for the Stanley Cup and the crucial role of assistant coaches in supporting athletes' psychological well-being, making for a captivating conversation on team dynamics and player development.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

From Player To Coach Transition

Scott Allen transitioned from player to coach when offered an assistant coaching job after 10 years playing minor league hockey.
He initially turned down coaching, but accepted and found it to be the best decision in his career.

INSIGHT

Coaching Is About People

Managing players' mental states is far more challenging than teaching game tactics.
Success requires customizing coaching approaches to each individual player’s needs and responses.

ADVICE

Loyalty Is Key In Coaching

Loyalty is crucial between coaches, players, and the organization to maintain trust and effectiveness.
Assistants must fully support head coaches’ decisions, even if they disagree initially.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

Scott Allen is the assistant coach of the Washington Capitals of the NHL. Prior to joining Washington, Allen spent three seasons with the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL). With Hershey, Allen served as an assistant coach for two seasons before being named the Bears’ head coach ahead of the 2021-22 season. Under Allen, Hershey finished with a record of 34-32-6-4, clinching a Calder Cup Playoff berth, and ranked tied for 11th in the AHL in goals against (209).

The New Bedford, Massachusetts native has coached professionally for more than 25 seasons, including assistant positions with the New York Islanders (2009-12), the Florida Panthers (2016-17) and the Arizona Coyotes (2017-19). With Arizona, Allen worked with the Coyotes' defensemen and penalty kill. During the 2018-19 season, Arizona ranked tied for first in the NHL in penalty kill percentage (85.0) and tied for fifth in goals against per game (2.68). In Allen's one season with Florida, the Panthers finished with the second-best penalty kill percentage in the NHL (85.3). Additionally, Allen has coached in the AHL for 14 seasons. Allen played professionally for 10 seasons in the All-American Hockey League, Atlantic Coast Hockey League, Colonial Hockey League, Central Hockey League and ECHL. Allen, a forward, won back-to-back Kelly Cups with the Carolina Thunderbirds in 1989 and the Greensboro Monarchs in 1990.

This podcast is a an amazing one. if you want to learn what it takes to coach at the highest level, to be a great assistant coach, to connect with athletes, and more, get ready to take some notes because Scott Allen is going to blow you away.

BOOK A SPEAKER: Interested in having John or one of our speaking team come to your school, club or coaching event? We are booking late Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 events, please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com to set up an introductory call.

PUT IN YOUR BULK BOOK ORDERS FOR OUR BESTSELLING BOOKS, AND JOIN 2025 CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS FROM SYRACUSE MENS LAX, UNC AND NAVY WOMENS LAX, AND MCLAREN F1! These are just the most recent championship teams using THE CHAMPION TEAMMATE book with their athletes and support teams. Many of these coaches are also getting THE CHAMPION SPORTS PARENT so their team parents can be part of a successful culture. Schools and clubs are using EVERY MOMENT MATTERS for staff development and book clubs. Are you? We have been fulfilling numerous bulk orders for some of the top high school and collegiate sports programs in the country, will your team be next?

Click here to visit John’s author page on Amazon

Click here to visit Jerry’s author page on Amazon

Please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com if you want discounted pricing on 10 or more books on any of our books. Thanks everyone.

This week’s podcast is brought to you by our friends at Sprocket Sports. Sprocket Sports is a new software platform for youth sports clubs. Yeah, there are a lot of these systems out there, but Sprocket provides the full enchilada. They give you all the cool front-end stuff to make your club look good– like websites and marketing tools – AND all the back-end transactions and services to run your business better so you can focus on what really matters – your players and your teams.

Sprocket is built for those clubs looking to thrive, not just survive, in the competitive world of youth sports clubs. So if you’ve been looking for a true business partner – not just another app – check them out today at https://sprocketsports.me/CTG.

BECOME A PREMIUM MEMBER OF CHANGING THE GAME PROJECT TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST

If you or your club/school is looking for all of our best content, from online courses to blog posts to interviews organized for coaches, parents and athletes, then become a premium member of Changing the Game Project today. For over a decade we have been creating materials to help change the game. and it has become a bit overwhelming to find old podcasts, blog posts and more. Now, we have organized it all for you, with areas for coaches, parents and even athletes to find materials to help compete better, and put some more play back in playing ball. Clubs please email John@ChangingTheGameProject.com for pricing.

Become a Podcast Champion! This weeks podcast is also sponsored by our Patreon Podcast Champions. Help Support the Podcast and get FREE access to our Premium Membership, with well over $1000 of courses and materials. If you love the podcast, we would love for you to become a Podcast Champion, (https://www.patreon.com/wayofchampions) for as little as a cup of coffee per month (OK, its a Venti Mocha), to help us up the ante and provide even better interviews, better sound, and an overall enhanced experience. Plus, as a $10 per month Podcast Super-Champion, you will be granted a Premium Changing the Game Project Membership, where you will have access to every course, interview and blog post we have created organized by topic from coaches to parents to athletes.

Thank you for all your support these past eight years, and a special big thank you to all of you who become part of our inner circle, our patrons, who will enable us to take our podcast to the next level. https://www.patreon.com/wayofchampions