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Speculation: 2024-25 Coaching/Management/Ownership

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I do believe it is time to give a little bit of credit where it is due.

I've been as much of a critic of Cronin as anybody, but reality is he has made some adjustments and the team is looking much more competent. We're holding onto the puck more, the team seems much more cohesive in their passing, and our coverage mistakes have dropped significantly. The goalies are doing their job (with almost identical numbers I might add) and giving us a chance to win every night.

Looking at some of Verbeek's deals:

Strome: Great compliment to Terry and Vatrano. Been one of our best forwards this year with that line. A slight overpay but probably needed to get him to come here. Time will tell how that contact ages but so far I'm fine with it.

Killorn: I think he'd be better suited to a 3rd line role at this point. Still shows flashes of brilliance and has looked better lately, but probably a deal we regret in short order. Once again, probably needed to overpay on term and AAV to get him to come here.

Dumoulin: Solid addition and better than I expected. He's accomplishing exactly what he was brought here to do which is insulate the younger players and take some of the tougher matchups. Solid trade by Verbeek.

Fabbri: He's looked decent when he's been healthy. Low risk, high reward deal there. Another solid deal by Verbeek.

Trouba: So far, so good. I'm a little concerned what an extension might look like, but he's been much much better than I anticipated.

Gauthier: I strongly believe we will end up winning this trade by a significant margin.

Even some of the smaller trades where he got Nesterenko for Klingberg or Agozzino for Sustr......he got a little value for scraps.

I think the only trade where I would have liked to see him get more value was Fowler.

It seems the biggest knock on Verbeek has been the hiring of Cronin. I can understand the frustration there, but I don't mind the idea of going after someone different.

He hasn't been around long enough to really critique his drafting, IMO. All in all I think there's a lot to like about what Verbeek is building here.
 
I do believe it is time to give a little bit of credit where it is due.

I've been as much of a critic of Cronin as anybody, but reality is he has made some adjustments and the team is looking much more competent. We're holding onto the puck more, the team seems much more cohesive in their passing, and our coverage mistakes have dropped significantly. The goalies are doing their job (with almost identical numbers I might add) and giving us a chance to win every night.

Looking at some of Verbeek's deals:

Strome: Great compliment to Terry and Vatrano. Been one of our best forwards this year with that line. A slight overpay but probably needed to get him to come here. Time will tell how that contact ages but so far I'm fine with it.

Killorn: I think he'd be better suited to a 3rd line role at this point. Still shows flashes of brilliance and has looked better lately, but probably a deal we regret in short order. Once again, probably needed to overpay on term and AAV to get him to come here.

Dumoulin: Solid addition and better than I expected. He's accomplishing exactly what he was brought here to do which is insulate the younger players and take some of the tougher matchups. Solid trade by Verbeek.

Fabbri: He's looked decent when he's been healthy. Low risk, high reward deal there. Another solid deal by Verbeek.

Trouba: So far, so good. I'm a little concerned what an extension might look like, but he's been much much better than I anticipated.

Gauthier: I strongly believe we will end up winning this trade by a significant margin.

Even some of the smaller trades where he got Nesterenko for Klingberg or Agozzino for Sustr......he got a little value for scraps.

I think the only trade where I would have liked to see him get more value was Fowler.

It seems the biggest knock on Verbeek has been the hiring of Cronin. I can understand the frustration there, but I don't mind the idea of going after someone different.

He hasn't been around long enough to really critique his drafting, IMO. All in all I think there's a lot to like about what Verbeek is building here.

This aged well
 
So when the team looks good, it’s the players. But when they suck, it’s the coach? Ya, that makes sense.
Cronin needed to go even during the stretches they won imo. Ignore the small blips and zoom out. They are dog shit and he constantly makes questionable decisions lol. The players are still part of the problem but he is in over his head, now and always
 
Playoffs were within reach then these guys go out in the road and play lifeless hockey, I ain’t letting them off the hook and placing it all in the head coach
It’s like clockwork. They put a good stretch together and things look promising and they go out and play games like the last 2. Frustrating
 
So when the team looks good, it’s the players. But when they suck, it’s the coach? Ya, that makes sense.
Yeah this is where I’m at. I don’t think Cronin is anything special as a coach but the team has shown they can be competitive with the rest of the league under him. So I ultimately just find the response to every loss being to bitch relentlessly about Cronin while letting the players off the hook incredibly obnoxious
 
Yeah this is where I’m at. I don’t think Cronin is anything special as a coach but the team has shown they can be competitive with the rest of the league under him. So I ultimately just find the response to every loss being to bitch relentlessly about Cronin while letting the players off the hook incredibly obnoxious

I don't think the players are off the hook. Many comment here about how the players are playing poorly. Killorn and Gudas have been critiqued consistently all season for example. Plenty here, including myself, were calling for Cronin to be fired during the wins. I definitely think he should be fired after these losses. There is no justifiable angle to argue Cronin has a positive impact on the team. There are, however, many examples to argue that Cronin has a negative impact on the team. He needs to go.
 
Yeah this is where I’m at. I don’t think Cronin is anything special as a coach but the team has shown they can be competitive with the rest of the league under him. So I ultimately just find the response to every loss being to bitch relentlessly about Cronin while letting the players off the hook incredibly obnoxious
No, actually they haven't. Since he's been here they've had far longer stretches of playing like shit than the few short stretches of looking respectable.

What is obnoxious is your condescension towards those who don't agree with you.
 
No, actually they haven't. Since he's been here they've had far longer stretches of playing like shit than the few short stretches of looking respectable.

What is obnoxious is your condescension towards those who don't agree with you.
Maybe if you include last season but just in terms of this season I really can’t agree with that
 
Yeah I’d put blame on the players, but when everyone has pretty much regressed, then I look at the coach and system. Zegras was the first victim who had two 60+ point seasons. Heck even Vatrano has regressed after having a career season. On pace for like only 20 goals this year.
 
Yeah I’d put blame on the players, but when everyone has pretty much regressed, then I look at the coach and system. Zegras was the first victim who had two 60+ point seasons. Heck even Vatrano has regressed after having a career season. On pace for like only 20 goals this year.
He had that career year under Cronin tho
 
The problem is on a good day Cronin can only get these guys to be competitive and eke out wins in the back of goaltending and Terry/ Lacombe being studs. This roster certainly should be better than just barely pulling out a win on a rare good day.

A good coach can figure out a way to make this roster not rely on 1 player (Terry) like it clearly does now. On paper this is a solid roster when healthy, but Cronin just doesn’t have what it takes to get them there, regardless of those percentages turning for a week or two.
 
Playoffs were within reach then these guys go out in the road and play lifeless hockey, I ain’t letting them off the hook and placing it all in the head coach

On a mostly young roster, it's on the coach to keep them on point. That was one of the factors Verbeek hired Cronin, to be rearing up the youth to the NHL level.

One stinker after several good games happens. Two consecutive stinkers, then that's gotta be on the coach for not waking the team up... or "coaching the team up".

The team is 10 points ahead after 42 games between last year and this year. While that is a huge jump, the team production isn't a huge jump. We've been relying on great goaltending and timely scoring to get points. Also, our GA is down b/c we're a more disciplined team this year, which is kudos to Cronin.

  • After 42 games
    • Last year
      • Record: 14-27-1 (29 pts)
      • GF = 103
        SOW= 1
      • GA = 144
      • PP GA = 39
    • This year
      • Record: 17-20-5 (39 pts)
      • GF = 103
        SOW= 2
      • GA = 133
      • PP GA = 32

Based upon the patterns for both seasons, the strong effort over a few recent games this season feels more like the outlier than the blowouts. We had 10 blowout losses last year in the first 42 games, blowout meaning losing by 3 or more goals. Including these recent two blowouts, the team has been blown out by 3 or more goals nine times this season.
 

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