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2023-24 San Diego Gulls/Tulsa Oilers

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anezthes said:
Gulls lose 8-4.
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It's the Gulls' continued struggles, more than anything, that makes me question Verbeek's hiring. I feel like coaching has the potential to have a higher and more immediate impact in lower levels than at the NHL level. While the Gulls certainly aren't the most talented team in the AHL, and have also dealt with their share of injuries, shouldn't McIlvane have them playing a more competitive level of hockey than this?

I liked that Verbeek went beyond the retreads to hire Cronin and went outside the box to hire McIlvane, but early returns aren't great. I think McIlvane deserves another year, but if there isn't a marked improvement in year two at the AHL level, Verbeek may need to pull the plug on that experiment.
 
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JAHV said:
It's the Gulls' continued struggles, more than anything, that makes me question Verbeek's hiring. I feel like coaching has the potential to have a higher and more immediate impact in lower levels than at the NHL level. While the Gulls certainly aren't the most talented team in the AHL, and have also dealt with their share of injuries, shouldn't McIlvane have them playing a more competitive level of hockey than this?

I liked that Verbeek went beyond the retreads to hire Cronin and went outside the box to hire McIlvane, but early returns aren't great. I think McIlvane deserves another year, but if there isn't a marked improvement in year two at the AHL level, Verbeek may need to pull the plug on that experiment.
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It might be roster construction as well. The Ducks have Zellweger up for the rest of the season and Zell was a top-3 scorer for the Gulls when he was recalled. Imagine for a moment if the Gulls had Minty and Carlsson for most of the season. How much more dynamic would the Gulls be with those two in tow?

There's a possibility the Gulls are lacking top-end offensive support from the forward side. I say this because two seasons ago both Perreault and Tracey had great improvements to where we were hoping for the next jump the following season. Instead, it was a huge dud. Tracey and Perreault were separated often instead of being a pair where they both showed great improvement offensively. The past two seasons under Verbeek, Tracey and Perreault's offensive productions have taken steps backwards.

Verbeek hired Sommer as Gulls head coach with assistant coaches already hired in Sparre and Clarke last season, with Sparre being McIlvane's assistant coach in Germany. This season feels kinda the same as last season, but maybe worse if the team didn't have Suchanek. Sparre and Clarke were retain for McIlvane.

Probably a mix of coaching improvements needed and more high end talents needed. The problem with the latter is Verbeek is expecting like six or seven rookies added to the AHL lineup next season with Cutter and probably the 2024 early first round pick bypassing the AHL. I don't know if there's room to add high-end veteran AHL'ers to the club next year.
 
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Another problem that's going to keep continuing for the Gulls is, for the most part, we're drafting complimentary players (especially forwards) because we have the core guys set already. All of the talented forwards (Carlsson, McTavish, Gauthier) are bypassing the AHL and the next tier of forwards are significantly worse and are put into roles that they aren't suited for. Most of the kids coming up need to be with a line driver.

Edit: Beaten to it
 
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I think the biggest issue is that all our prospects that are any good really are in the NHL already with few exceptions.
 
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Does anyone think that McIlvane is perhaps not allowed to implement “his” system and instead has been implementing Cronin’s system instead? Thought I heard that was his main task and perhaps that is hamstringing him since Cronin’s systems seem quite lacking. I recall watching the rookie tournaments with McIlvane behind the bench and seemed like a completely new and refreshing style than what I was used to seeing, like there was actually an offensive system in place. The fact they they’re constantly outshot now seems more indicative of Cronin’s system.
 
SingDomestica said:
Does anyone think that McIlvane is perhaps not allowed to implement “his” system and instead has been implementing Cronin’s system instead? Thought I heard that was his main task and perhaps that is hamstringing him since Cronin’s systems seem quite lacking. I recall watching the rookie tournaments with McIlvane behind the bench and seemed like a completely new and refreshing style than what I was used to seeing, like there was actually an offensive system in place. The fact they they’re constantly outshot now seems more indicative of Cronin’s system.
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Every minor league coach runs the same system as the one being used by the NHL team. Whether the system is up to Cronin or Verbeek, that’s probably up for debate. But no chance they’re going to teach the AHL guys to play a different way than they do on the big league club.
 
JAHV said:
I also don't know why they would have hired McIlvane if he wasn't comfortable running Cronin's system.
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IIRC, Verbeek thought he had McIlvane last season for the Gulls, but it didn't work out. The asst coaches seemed to be set for McIlvane, not Sommer, b/c Sparre was McIlvane's assistant in Germanay. We didn't change asst coaches between last year and this year despite being bad last year.
 
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