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Speculation: 2024-25 Coaching/Management/Ownership

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CrazyDuck4u said:
Baring a flu epidemic in the locker room. If this piss poor effort continues.. PV might make a trade for the sale of a shake up.. he is not firing Cronin this soon because that's would look bad on him.
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too bad we have owners that don't really care about how well the franchise is doing and is probably fine with them being bad since it means they're cheap.
 
CrazyDuck4u said:
I refuse to believe Samuelies would be ok with a piss poor team for so long. Something has to give.
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First and foremost, I'll always be grateful to have the Samueli's as our owners. They bought the Ducks to keep them in Anaheim than to relocate them like the Arizona NHL franchise moved to Utah. Also, they literally dragged the AHL out west. On top of that, they began restoring ice rinks, helping to create high school ice hockey programs, and constructed Great Park ice/Five Point arena skating rinks/Ducks practice facility. To cement the Ducks will always stay in Anaheim, the Ducks are the centerpiece to the OCvibe entertainment district construction.

The Samueli's leave hockey ops to hockey people. Verbeek was the GM chosen by committee. When Verbeek went Verbeekening, he had to inform the Samueli's that he reset the rebuild and rebuilds take at least five years. Their fates are intertwined for the proposed five years. We are staring year 3 of the Verbeek reset rebuild. To me, it's another developmental season. The only way up is through our youths. Gonna need a longer burn on Cronin for this season as we added another two more rookies on a full-time basis with LW Cutter and RD Luneau. If Cronin does get canned during this season or after this season by Verbeek, then it's a terrible look to be on your third head coach in three or four years as GM.

Tack on that the San Diego Gulls have been abysmal for the past few years and have started out middling too is also not a great reflection upon Verbeek.

Cronin and San Diego are symptoms of the underlying problem... GM Verbeek. Will the Samueli's wait out the proposed 5-year rebuild timeline with Verbeek? No idea. If "the committee" chirps to the Samueli's, then it could be possible that the Samueli's are looking for a new GM sooner. Would Teemu, Nieds, or Kariya have the gravitas to do so?
 
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For this team the lack of effort is the coach’s/organization’s fault. It is only game 5.

No one will ever convince me that the organization built an entire team of players that lack motivation, especially the youth. Have we really missed on so many players?

I remember when AZ had a roster of young players Domi, Duclair, Dvorak, Strome, Chychrun, Keller. Tippett and Touccet drove them all away, except Keller. The organization was also such a cancer.

Anyone thinking that blaming the kids will help needs to realize that we either missed on almost all of our picks or the organization will drive them away. Either way buckle up because it is going to be a longer bumpy ride back.

None of those young AZ players that left lived up to their potential. Will never know the root cause, maybe it is just a microcosm of a much bigger problem.

John
 
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I questioned this hire in the beginning, and been having no faith for a long while now.

We unfortunately hired someone who is worse than Eakins - and I hate thinking about that. We will be stuck in mediocrity with Cronin behind the bench.
 
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Hockey Duckie said:
If Cronin does get canned during this season or after this season by Verbeek, then it's a terrible look to be on your third head coach in three or four years as GM.

Cronin and San Diego are symptoms of the underlying problem... GM Verbeek. Will the Samueli's wait out the proposed 5-year rebuild timeline with Verbeek? No idea. If "the committee" chirps to the Samueli's, then it could be possible that the Samueli's are looking for a new GM sooner. Would Teemu, Nieds, or Kariya have the gravitas to do so?
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I do not know how much of the problem PV is but honestly, it would be the second coach. Eakins was a relict of GMBM and for that reason never the choice of PV.

Teemu would be a horrible GM imho. Paul will not do it (other preferences) and Nieds, I don't know.

Next to the coaching thing, PV did nothing wrong. Drafting is still open and too early to tell, the trades were mostly. Only the first cleanup went too cheap in my mind.
 
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The idea that “firing” Eakins is PV’s fault and should count against his record is absurd. He inherited him much like he inherited the Gibson problem.

Verbeek is on his first head coach right now in my eyes and gets at least one more before you start to really question his decision making in that regard.

A lot of GMs get to change to different head coaches many times
 
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Verbeek has not made terrible decisions, other than Cronin, and maybe Lindholm.

His returns on players may not be what we think they should have been, but every fan base over values their players.

His top draft picks do not seem horrendous. Sennecke is a wait and see, but other than Demidov not too many top forwards at that slot.

Gauthier for Drysdale appears to be a good trade.

But Killorn has made me forget how much I hate the Strome contract.

But if no top veteran wants to play for Anaheim, I’m not sure what can be done. We need to start winning, or at least be moving in the right direction to attract some players.

As for Cronin, I think Verbeek rolled the dice because he didn’t want a re-tread. After listening to Cronin I understand why he was hired. He says the right things. Unfortunately he is unable to actually do what he says. Verbeek should have realized why no one ever wanted Cronin as an NHL head coach. Cronin’s age should have been a major red flag.

Our coaching issue is not an easy one to fix if he fires Cronin. We will need to roll the dice again since most good head coaches are already employed.

John
 
Even if we were forced to admit that our skill players/draft picks either aren't as good as we think, or are too young to make a difference in the pros yet, an NHL roster putting up 15 SOG over the course of a 60 minute hockey game is a complete joke. And this was at home, with all of our forwards healthy, playing the lines and matchups that Cronin wants.

And then post-game his comments are pretty much "these guys need to skate". Why are his players collectively not moving their legs and putting in the effort five games into the season against a huge division rival?

I feel like something is rotten in the culture of this team, and I'm not really sure what to do about it at this point. Like the years of losing and constant expectations that they'll be shit has just built up a collective malaise in the franchise that hangs over everyone.
 
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Smirnov2Chistov said:
I questioned this hire in the beginning, and been having no faith for a long while now.

We unfortunately hired someone who is worse than Eakins - and I hate thinking about that. We will be stuck in mediocrity with Cronin behind the bench.
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At this point I'd settle for a period of mediocrity over the ineptitude we've been getting.
 
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Reveille1984 said:
I feel like something is rotten in the culture of this team, and I'm not really sure what to do about it at this point. Like the years of losing and constant expectations that they'll be shit has just built up a collective malaise in the franchise that hangs over everyone.
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I feel like the best leaders are the ones that we’ve had in the past - and nobody on the roster has the ‘it factor’ like them. I’m obviously thinking of Kesler, Perry, Getzlaf, but then you had others like Vermette, Beiksa, Cogs, Eaves who could all lift their weight as leaders.

let’s face it, we don’t have anyone in that room that can support someone like Gudas and pull them out of the piss-poor effort they put in almost in every game. Fowler should be ashamed to have that A
 
Smirnov2Chistov said:
I feel like the best leaders are the ones that we’ve had in the past - and nobody on the roster has the ‘it factor’ like them. I’m obviously thinking of Kesler, Perry, Getzlaf, but then you had others like Vermette, Beiksa, Cogs, Eaves who could all lift their weight as leaders.

let’s face it, we don’t have anyone in that room that can support someone like Gudas and pull them out of the piss-poor effort they put in almost in every game. Fowler should be ashamed to have that A
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Getzlaf won a cup. He will also have his jersey retired one day. He is a lifetime Duck.

There is not a chance Cronin would call out Getz, but Getz would call out Cronin.

We have no one with that pedigree on this team.

It would have to come from one of our legends whose credentials far outweighs Cronin wishful thinking. But with PV, unfortunately, those interfaces may not carry the necessary weight.

John
 
70sSanO said:
Getzlaf won a cup. He will also have his jersey retired one day. He is a lifetime Duck.

There is not a chance Cronin would call out Getz, but Getz would call out Cronin.

We have no one with that pedigree on this team.

It would have to come from one of our legends whose credentials far outweighs Cronin wishful thinking. But with PV, unfortunately, those interfaces may not carry the necessary weight.

John
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It's just frustrating as a fan. Nothing of real significance was added to this team. It's going to be another gongshow of a year. Hate to be doomy and gloomy around here (as always) - but nothing has shown me any spark that improvement is coming.

Newsflash - Cronin won't change a month, a year, or even two/three/four seasons from now. He is a mediocre coach who looks lost.
 
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It's possible that Cronin is not cut out to be an NHL head coach. Many minor league, amateur and former pros have gotten a shot in the NHL and did not succeed. :dunno:

PV chose to give a new guy like Cronin a shot at the NHL rather than recycle another NHL coach who will be overpaid and will likely wear out his welcome in 3-4 years anyways. Underperfoming teams will begin to fire coaches in early Dec or January so PV will get a chance to see who looks interesting, who is interested in Anaheim's situation and who might be better than Cronin if things don't turn around.

By the way what happened to Matt McIlvane ? I thought he is a hot shot coach from Europe who was thought to be a young player's coach and PV's future guy at the time he was hired. :badidea:
 
Emerald Duck said:
It's possible that Cronin is not cut out to be an NHL head coach. Many minor league, amateur and former pros have gotten a shot in the NHL and did not succeed. :dunno:

PV chose to give a new guy like Cronin a shot at the NHL rather than recycle another NHL coach who will be overpaid and will likely wear out his welcome in 3-4 years anyways. Underperfoming teams will begin to fire coaches in early Dec or January so PV will get a chance to see who looks interesting, who is interested in Anaheim's situation and who might be better than Cronin if things don't turn around.

By the way what happened to Matt McIlvane ? I thought he is a hot shot coach from Europe who was thought to be a young player's coach and PV's future guy at the time he was hired. :badidea:
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It looks like they might both be misses. Which is both depressing as a fan, since it's a pretty big step down the path to Buffalo-dom, and is a significant indictment of Verbeek as a competent GM.

It's been five games. I'm holding out hope. But I'm rapidly losing faith.
 
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Emerald Duck said:
By the way what happened to Matt McIlvane ? I thought he is a hot shot coach from Europe who was thought to be a young player's coach and PV's future guy at the time he was hired
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I mean.. I don't think McIlvane was ever some 'hot shot' new coach on the block. Sure - he won championships in Germany which does give him some merit, but the talent and level of competition is way different than it is overseas.

Or.. could be a drafting/recruiting talent issue. And if that's the case then Verbeek isn't doing a good job acquiring or drafting the right talent to make the team better.

If they wanted to make a splash, they should've went after Rickard Gronberg (whom I thought they were considering him before going with Eakins..?)
 
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