Speculation: 2024-25 Coaching/Management/Ownership

[Ducks DVM]

I’d like to keep this job

MMC confirmed as Cronin

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

bruce is old and he's not a coach you hire for a rebuilding, young team anyways

A few weeks ago that would have been my response too. But now I'm at the point where I'd just be happy having Bruce entertain me if nothing else. None of this "I don't know" shit.

The classic line..."If you want it, don't just think you want it, go out and f***in' want it!"

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

A few weeks ago that would have been my response too. But now I'm at the point where I'd just be happy having Bruce entertain me if nothing else. None of this "I don't know" shit.

The classic line..."If you want it, don't just think you want it, go out and f***in' want it!"

Bruce makes you want to run through a wall for his teams.

Cronin? Not so much..

 

[Gliff]

bruce is old and he's not a coach you hire for a rebuilding, young team anyways

Why? What makes him a bad coach for a young team? He is only 7 years older then Cronin lol. He has proven time and time again he is able to get the best out of players. We have the talent, just need guys to develop and play to their potential.

Cronin is a teacher, a guy you would think would be perfect for a young team. We see how that has turned out.

Do what the Canucks did. Give him the rest of the year to see what he can do with this team.

 

[HanSolo]

This is an unfortunate misconception - outside of the year where Verbeek decided the quest for Bedard was more important than having actual NHL defensemen, the teams are pretty comparable, in the low 30’s in shots against. Cronin has better talent, not a better system.

View attachment 926205

Fair assessment.

 

[Ducks DVM]

Fair assessment.

Yeah, and even then, the difference between that bad year for Eakins and this year so far is 1 exactly extra shot every 15 minutes of play.

Wrap your head around that, anyone who’s still thinking Cronin has them more “defensively sound”.

 

[Kalv]

Ambush Bug (@ambushbugdc) on Threads

The @anaheimducks have 24 goals through 11 games so far this season. Three of those are empty net goals which means the Ducks have only beaten a goalie 21 times in 11 games - just 1.90 goals per game on average. That is pathetic. In 2023-24 they had the third worst offense and they're well...

www.threads.net

 

[Terry Yake]

Why? What makes him a bad coach for a young team? He is only 7 years older then Cronin lol. He has proven time and time again he is able to get the best out of players. We have the talent, just need guys to develop and play to their potential.

Cronin is a teacher, a guy you would think would be perfect for a young team. We see how that has turned out.

Do what the Canucks did. Give him the rest of the year to see what he can do with this team.

he's a coach you bring in when you're ready to contend for the playoffs and this team isn't anywhere near that point

not to mention that canucks team had far more talent than this ducks team does

 

[DavidBL]

he's a coach you bring in when you're ready to contend for the playoffs and this team isn't anywhere near that point

not to mention that canucks team had far more talent than this ducks team does

I'd disagree. BBs success was always regular season. Playoffs is where he struggles.

On a separate note, what really concerns me are the comments from Lybushkin, which feel accurate looking at the team, and those from Cronin praising Johnson. To me these combine that the kids aren't buying into what Cronin is selling and Cronins methods to try and get the buy in seem to be hurting his cause.

 

[Terry Yake]

I'd disagree. BBs success was always regular season. Playoffs is where he struggles.

On a separate note, what really concerns me are the comments from Lybushkin, which feel accurate looking at the team, and those from Cronin praising Johnson. To me these combine that the kids aren't buying into what Cronin is selling and Cronins methods to try and get the buy in seem to be hurting his cause.

.....exactly. i didn't say you bring him in to win a cup

 

[Kalv]

I'd disagree. BBs success was always regular season. Playoffs is where he struggles.

On a separate note, what really concerns me are the comments from Lybushkin, which feel accurate looking at the team, and those from Cronin praising Johnson. To me these combine that the kids aren't buying into what Cronin is selling and Cronins methods to try and get the buy in seem to be hurting his cause.

Exactly. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for this season, but its clear not much have changed. He seems to be hurting us way more than he's helping

 

[TheGoodShepard1]

Ambush Bug (@ambushbugdc) on Threads

The @anaheimducks have 24 goals through 11 games so far this season. Three of those are empty net goals which means the Ducks have only beaten a goalie 21 times in 11 games - just 1.90 goals per game on average. That is pathetic. In 2023-24 they had the third worst offense and they're well...

www.threads.net

Just to put this in perspective: Kaprizov, Makar, and Sam Reinhart all have 21 POINTS individually, and MacKinnon, Kucherov and Mark Stone all have 20. This core group might turn out to be a dud (I'm certainly not saying there's a Makar on our backend), but the system doesn't even give them a fighting chance to even be competitive offensively most nights.

 

[potatopieee]

Remember all of the big talk Verbeek slung around last year about signing big FAs and competing for the playoffs this season? Where's that confidence now, Pat? And where is the accountability for your mouth having written checks that your abysmal general managing skills can't cash?

Props on the attempts to mollify the fan base with bright new unis and the very evident OCVibe construction, but the core problem remains: the product on the ice is total garbage. We haven't seen the postseason since 2017. Seven years of failure. Have you no pride?

If you have to blow this turd up and start over on personnel, do it. Just do something besides repackaging the same lackluster, disorganized, uninspired hockey team and telling us it'll be different this year.

2018*

 

[91Fedorov]

Has he been fired yet?

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

Genuine question here, what exactly qualifies Rich Clune to be an assistant coach?

If I had to guess,

“In his first season behind the bench with the Marlies after joining partway through the 2023-24 campaign, Clune helped the Marlies to a Calder Cup Playoffs berth. The Marlies posted a 26-21-8 record after he joined as an Assistant Coach, while improving the power play dramatically from 13.0% (10-77) when he arrived to 21.9% (43-196) the remaining 55 games.”

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I also think it was fairly classless to pick up Eakins option year under the guise of of evaluating him and then completely sewering him with the roster he did + the pressuring prospects to go to Florida on their own dime to go to his training guru

I agree with the Florida thing, but you don’t hire a coach you want to keep when the best thing for the franchise is to tank for freaking Conor Bedard. Plus the Leo / Fantilli as the backups. 2 extremely talented prospect and a franchise player. You leave the lame duck head coach, and roster that AHL defense all day.

 

[MMC]

I also think it was fairly classless to pick up Eakins option year under the guise of of evaluating him and then completely sewering him with the roster he did + the pressuring prospects to go to Florida on their own dime to go to his training guru

It was "classless" to employ a guy who no one else wanted to have as an NHL head coach in that role for an additional year? I'd argue it was rather generous. I don't know why people won't just admit they don't like PV rather than come up with these hilarious narratives

 

[ohcomeonref]

Just to put this in perspective: Kaprizov, Makar, and Sam Reinhart all have 21 POINTS individually, and MacKinnon, Kucherov and Mark Stone all have 20. This core group might turn out to be a dud (I'm certainly not saying there's a Makar on our backend), but the system doesn't even give them a fighting chance to even be competitive offensively most nights.

Well this is depressing. Fire Cronin.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

It was "classless" to employ a guy who no one else wanted to have as an NHL head coach in that role for an additional year? I'd argue it was rather generous. I don't know why people won't just admit they don't like PV rather than come up with these hilarious narratives

"Classess" was being catfished into a reset rebuild. From Detroit News:

Named general manager of the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, Verbeek is going to an organization in third place in the Pacific Division, in a wild-card spot, and past the early stages of the rebuild phase.​

​

"This team doesn't need to be rebuilt; they're in the middle of their rebuild, so this is a great opportunity to take this team forward and turn them into a contender," Verbeek said during his introductory press conference. "You don't have to come in there and look to take a long time. There's good players in the NHL, good players in the minors and there are players that have been drafted. There's a lot coming to support the growth of this team. That's truly what I'm excited about."​

Welp, we just gotta ride out the 5-year rebuild plan that Verbeek cited as a timeline and hope for the best. We're in year 3 of the reset, looking like two years of disparaging offense, and heading for a third top-3 pick in the draft. Still hoping for some kind of turnaround, but the chances of that occurring this season is as likely as an anchor floating.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

"Classess" was being catfished into a reset rebuild. From Detroit News:

Named general manager of the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, Verbeek is going to an organization in third place in the Pacific Division, in a wild-card spot, and past the early stages of the rebuild phase.​

​

"This team doesn't need to be rebuilt; they're in the middle of their rebuild, so this is a great opportunity to take this team forward and turn them into a contender," Verbeek said during his introductory press conference. "You don't have to come in there and look to take a long time. There's good players in the NHL, good players in the minors and there are players that have been drafted. There's a lot coming to support the growth of this team. That's truly what I'm excited about."​

Welp, we just gotta ride out the 5-year rebuild plan that Verbeek cited as a timeline and hope for the best. We're in year 3 of the reset, looking like two years of disparaging offense, and heading for a third top-3 pick in the draft. Still hoping for some kind of turnaround, but the chances of that occurring this season is as likely as an anchor floating.

I mean, you are completely taking nuance out of the equation. We had Lindholm, Raks, Manson, and Deslauries all on expiring deals, a 36 year old Getzlaf about to retire after getting 1,000 pts and such.

The players he was talking about in terms of the good players on the roster all were expiring UFA’s. He said he meet with them to discuss salary, if they even would re-sign, years, blah blah blah.

Here’s some info you left out….

The Ducks (23-16-9) are tied for second with the Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division, two points behind the first-place Vegas Golden Knights.

What will play into that is deciding whether to keep or move on from three pending unrestricted free agents — top-four defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson and scoring winger Rickard Rakell. The three have spent their entire careers with Anaheim but there hasn’t been a clear sign that any of them will re-sign with the Ducks or that the club wants to re-sign all three. Nic Deslauriers is another UFA of value.

Verbeek believes he has more than enough time — “quite a bit of time, actually” — to decide what to do with the Ducks’ veteran core. He said Samueli has given him clearance to do whatever is necessary to keep the team moving forward.

And Verbeek quickly made it known that he wasn’t going to risk letting his pending unrestricted free agents walk away this summer for nothing if he wasn’t able to come to terms on contract extensions.

It has been less than a month since the Anaheim Ducks installed their new general manager, Pat Verbeek, on Feb. 3. When Verbeek was hired, the Ducks were sitting third in the Pacific Division with 55 points in 48 games, with a seven-point cushion in the playoff race.

As of Monday, that cushion is gone. The Ducks have gone 2-5-0 in the month of February and now sit 10th in the Western Conference, two points out of the last wild-card spot and with more games played than any other contender in the West.

Verbeek wasn’t willing to write off his club’s playoff chances when he spoke to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic last week. But he was clear that he didn’t want to waste an opportunity to deal his players if the Ducks can’t re-sign them soon.

“At the end of the day, there’s no guarantee I can get those three free agents back,” Verbeek told LeBrun. “I’m going to attempt to sign them, if it doesn’t happen, I just can’t let them walk out the door free.’’



Sooooo, what he said was true when he said it. We had 4 solid NHL players, who were UFA’s at the end of the season, he tried to sign them, it didn’t work out, he traded them. This turned a “retool” into a full on rebuild.

All that being said I would consider this year 3 of the rebuild. And we have a plethora of young talented players, and expiring deals in the 1-3 years.

I truly do believe we will be a powerhouse in the future, and probably 2 years from now (year 5) we will officially be out of our rebuild, with a team “in a perfect world” that probably looks something like this, barring trades which are going to happen.

Cutter (23) - Leo (22) - Sennecke (20)

Sidorov (22) - Zegras (25) - Terry (29)

Nesternko (25) - McT (24) - Colangelo (25)

Myatovic (22) - Gaucher (23) - Regenda (27)

Minty (23) - Luneau (22)

Zelly (23) - Warren (22)

LaCombe (26) - Dionicio (22)


Dostal (26)

Suchanek (23)

Now obviosuly this won’t be the roster, but that’s a lot of young talent, plus imagine we add a top 10 RHD prospect to this lineup. Not to mention any UFA’s we sign.

We have no bad contracts that will handicap our ability to sign all our RFA’s.

I just don’t see how you can look at our war chest and think Verbeek is doing a bad job.

We have Gudas / Dumoulin / Fabbri / Strome / Vats / Killorn / Fowler / Gibson as vets. 3 have won chips, 1 SC final / 4 WCF or ECF’s. People who have been in deep playoff runs.

I just believe in the future, even though a lot of those prospects won’t pan out.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

Remember all of the big talk Verbeek slung around last year about signing big FAs and competing for the playoffs this season? Where's that confidence now, Pat? And where is the accountability for your mouth having written checks that your abysmal general managing skills can't cash?

Props on the attempts to mollify the fan base with bright new unis and the very evident OCVibe construction, but the core problem remains: the product on the ice is total garbage. We haven't seen the postseason since 2017. Seven years of failure. Have you no pride?

If you have to blow this turd up and start over on personnel, do it. Just do something besides repackaging the same lackluster, disorganized, uninspired hockey team and telling us it'll be different this year.

I feel like Verbeek has been nothing but talk year after year.

People can deflect and say ‘He tried his best’, but that’s it? You couldn’t even swing on someone else with quality on a one or two year overpay?

I fear that we will have to blow it up again and trade some of our youth away for even more picks or more project players. Reset the rebuild?

A fish rots from the head down. The GM makes a crappy hire of an inexperienced head coach and then they both hire an assistant with a minimal proven background. The problem isn't the low guy on the totem pole. You're focusing on the wrong guy if you're expecting him to make the other two look like geniuses.

It’s a big pile of shit all around. I really feel like this is worse than the Eakins era.

I was always skeptical of Cronin since day one. These guys may say he’s a nice guy in interviews, but their body language and playing language doesn’t correlate with one another. They look like they have tuned him out.

I am so thankful that Lubs interview came out and showed a glimpse into what a gong show this has become

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I truly do believe we will be a powerhouse in the future, and probably 2 years from now (year 5) we will officially be out of our rebuild, with a team “in a perfect world” that probably looks something like this, barring trades which are going to happen.

With less than desirable coaching, I don’t expect that will happen.

Myatovic is looking like a slam dunk pick so far too lmao.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

With less than desirable coaching, I don’t expect that will happen.

Myatovic is looking like a slam dunk pick so far too lmao.

I mean Cronin is the 16th longest tenured coach in the league, with under 100 games coached for the ducks. That seems to tell me most coaches are less than desirable. I mean only 1 coach a year can win the championship.

That being said, as long as players are developing a two way game, I’m fine with Cronin for 2-3 years. The third year very dependent on if this team gets better throughout the season. I mean the warriors had hard ass Marc Jackson as their coach for 4 years, fired him for Steve Kerr and became a dynasty.

Let’s see how we look after November before we bring out the pitchforks, remember I know it’s unsustainable (winning how we’re playing), but after back 2 back sub 60 pt seasons we are on pace for 75 pts right now. And on most nights look f***ing awful. It would have been nice if this team actually showed up this season with some kind of identity, but alas, sometimes you find it during the season. Lots of home games this month, if we don’t take any steps forward then we can start truly complaining about the coach, and he won’t be long for the ducks.