Good Day for Oates: Coaching Job and Hall of Fame Election The Devils, rightly concerned about the prospect of losing Zach Parise and Martin Brodeur from their Stanley Cup finalist team, have lost another important cog: Adam Oates, their assistant coach in charge of forwards. Oates was named coach of the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, replacing Dale Hunter, who stepped down from the job after the Caps lost the second round of the playoffs to the Rangers. Oates, 49, was a Devils assistant for two seasons and before that, an assistant with Tampa Bay for one season. But he has never been a head coach at any level. Later Tuesday, Oates was named an inductee to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Oates, who accumulated 1,420 points in his 1,337-game N.H.L. playing career, ranks 19th all time and had been the highest-scoring player not inducted to the Hall. He was passed over for election from 2007 through 2011. He is joined in the 2012 class by Joe Sakic, Mats Sundin and Pavel Bure. "We are very pleased to name Adam Oates as the new head coach of the Washington Capitals," General Manager George McPhee said in a news release. Adam was a highly intelligent player in the N.H.L. for 19 seasons. He has been an assistant coach in our conference for the past three seasons and is prepared to lead our club as head coach. Only Wayne Gretzky had more assists during the 1990s than Oates, and when Brett Hull scored 70 or more goals for three straight seasons in St. Louis, Oates was his setup man. He is the highest-scoring player not to have won a Stanley Cup, after skating for Detroit, the Blues, Boston, the Capitals (from 1997 to 2002), Philadelphia, Anaheim and Edmonton. He came close to the Cup last month when the Devils fell in six games to Los Angeles in the finals. "He talks to a bunch of us after almost every game," Devils forward Dainius Zubrus said during the playoffs in praising Oates's work behind the bench. "He comes out with his laptop and shows clips, teaching guys - little things," Zubrus added. His hockey sense, his knowledge of the game, I feel like he's helped me and a bunch of other guys as well. General Manager Lou Lamoriello gave Oates permission to talk to one team about taking over behind the bench, and that team turned out to be the Capitals, where he served as captain from 1999 to 2001. Hunter stressed defense in taking over the Capitals at midseason and just barely getting them into the playoffs, where they beat the defending champion Bruins in seven games before falling to the Rangers in seven. He returned to his longtime job behind the bench with the junior London Knights at the season's conclusion. Oates, by contrast, is expected to stress attack, a move that is likely to be welcomed by Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green, three high-scoring skaters whose point totals fell under Oates and a close-checking regime installed late in the tenure of Hunter's predecessor, Bruce Boudreau.