Speculation: 2024-25 Coaching/Management/Ownership

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I lean more towards bad. Other than properly developing Helleson, I can't see much to write home about with San Diego third to last in the AHL.

I’ve posted McIlvane’s introductory press conference multiple times here. Individual development to get players ready for the NHL is what MM says his most important job is. A bunch of 2nd / 3rd / 4th round picks not being called up as 2nd year / rookies in the AHL is kinda par for the course.

He’s also running Cronin’s system down there, but I understand your trepidation.

And it very well may be a bad plan, but I think that’s the plan, might as well root for McIlvane to do well until he truly shows me otherwise.

 

[quackquackquack]

I'm ready to call it...IF the Ducks get embarrassed tonight, Cronin is gone.

 

[Mr Rogers]

man, it’s a pretty interesting dynamic because you have vets like Strome and Vatrano who like Cronin and probably a few others, on the other side of the ledger Killorn and Terry have made comments that can be interpreted as critical. And former guys like Silf and Bush - don’t think Fowler liked him either. I thought mctavish seemed really frustrated in his interview today, honestly don’t blame him one bit.

 

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I really do find it funny that people (whether on here or other hockey places) gave Lybs comments a pass but now that Silf said something, more people are paying attention to this gong show of a coach.

This guy is just so miserable to play for. Enough is enough already

 

[TopShelfWaterBottle]

Brother what’s it going to take to change your mind, Cronin littering in your section? Because I can stage that easily.

You work for the US government don’t you

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I really do find it funny that people (whether on here or other hockey places) gave Lybs comments a pass but now that Silf said something, more people are paying attention to this gong show of a coach.

This guy is just so miserable to play for. Enough is enough already

This is not a Cronin’s the best comment. But, in Silf’s case, if I was at a company for 10 years, and some new manager came in who was an asshole and a bunch teenagers were hired and touted as the future and everything the company did was geared towards their success. I’d be pissed too.

If I was also a scrub like Lybs, who was forced to a company that did the same thing with teenagers, I’d also be pissed too.

All that being said, the only vets who matter are the ones who signed here knowing they would be babysitting teenagers, or accepted trades willingly (with semi NMC), and the teenagers themselves.

That’s not to say Cronin hasn’t lost the room, just I understand how it definitely wasn’t a good locker room for some vets.

 

[robbieboy3686]

This I’m sure in a perfect world we ride Cronin 3 years. Leo turns 21, and the 4th year we hand the reigns over to McIlvane.

If this was the plan, and still is the long term goal. Cronin most likely starts next year, maybe Bruce on deck for a chance to take over mid season / or McIlvane prepped to take over at the first sign of trouble.

Good, bad, indifferent….. this is probably the route we are taking.

This would be absolutely awful.

 

[dracom]

This I’m sure in a perfect world we ride Cronin 3 years. Leo turns 21, and the 4th year we hand the reigns over to McIlvane.

If this was the plan, and still is the long term goal. Cronin most likely starts next year, maybe Bruce on deck for a chance to take over mid season / or McIlvane prepped to take over at the first sign of trouble.

Good, bad, indifferent….. this is probably the route we are taking.

i truly don't understand how anyone thinks is a good plan. the youth is getting worse under him. we're not improving under Cronin in any way. like giving Cronin another year just to let the guy in SD who is also not doing well and following Cronin's system seems like a great way to make sure this team is stuck in the bottom for the next decade.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

This would be absolutely awful.

Fair to think that, I’m just saying that almost definitely was the plan. What audible may be called ? Who knows.

Like if we hire JW, and we start slowly do we fire him too ? What about DC ?

At what point do we sacrifice these shitty years, which EVERY team who rebuilds the way we have …. goes through.

I’m sure all our young players would be scoring more points if Eakins was still the coach, does that mean when Leo is 26-32 he will be a better player ?

Once again not a Cronin needs to stay !!! He’s a great coach !!! Just more a I don’t think this roster makes the playoffs with another coach to start the season.

I think when we put Terry / Zegras / Leo / McT / Cutter (and this will be a Verbeek thing I believe) all in our top 6, then we are truly trying to win. Look at Columbus and Montreal’s top 6 for proof.

Cronin is a stopgap coach for your coach of the future, I understand he sucks, and deployment sucks, and all that stuff. But to pretend this organization is committing malpractice for allowing a slow burn, is just kinda meh to me.

I’m frustrated too, I haven’t been to a playoff hockey game in almost 10 years. I think game 7 vs Edmonton …. Nick Ritchie you mad lad !!

I’m just willing to punt the last 2 years, plus 1-2 more hoping we become a perennial playoff contender during Leo’s 23 and older years.

A miko or Mitch in free agency kinda kick starts this, and would need a new head coach to go with a move like that. Otherwise we are kinda stuck here. Hating Cronin more and more each day isn’t going to change that.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

i truly don't understand how anyone thinks is a good plan. the youth is getting worse under him. we're not improving under Cronin in any way. like giving Cronin another year just to let the guy in SD who is also not doing well and following Cronin's system seems like a great way to make sure this team is stuck in the bottom for the next decade.

I’m not saying it’s a good plan. I just laying out what looks like the plan to me. I’ve shared insights to Verbeek’s migration events / Cronin’s interview with Alexis / Matt McIlvane’s introductory press conference.

When expectations meet reality, you will find absolute zen.

I expected a couple sophomore slumps (currently all of them except Dostal and Lacombe). A rookie wall (currently Cutter hasn’t hit it). More pts with less injuries (check) / better underlining stats (big no check) / our 5 young players getting top 6 minutes at some point (currently that’s a negative).

I say all this to say yes we are underperforming, but we’ve been a bottom 3 roster for 2 years, and added bottom 6 Fabbri and good bottom pairing Dumo, what did we expect ? The 2 guys in the bottom three with us are also still….. bottom 2.

 

[Static]

Well I guess the game is over.

 

[Son of Gib]

Serious question, why would the words of a guy who is no longer on the team about the coach from an incident that took place last season have any bearing on whether Cronin gets fired in the present?

Because someone no longer on the team, or better yet, no longer in the league, is the only one who can actually publicly say something like this without looking unprofessional. Not to mention, they have nothing to gain personally from saying it.

 

[12ozPapa]

Lots of speculation here that Carlyle and Cronin's methods were the same b/c both are deemed as hardnosed coaches.

Lyubushkin and Silf identified specific instances of Cronin doing things that no other coaches have done before at the NHL level. For Silf's instance, Cronin did this in-game instead of it being done behind closed doors. Which is why Silf countered that example with Getz calling a player meeting if the team was on a 3-game losing streak. When your assistant Captain believes you've crossed the line, then that is definitely not a great thing... especially when you also made him lose the spark to play hockey.

Carlyle's antiquated style of coach didn't mesh with the influx of youths in his second runaround and Carlyle got canned mid-season. TBF, Carlyle lost older veterans to injury in F Eaves, C Kelser, and RW Perry in a two-year span and was forced to coach a lot of youths because of those vet injuries.

Cronin let his lips loose when he admitted this past summer he went overboard on LaCombe to where LaCombe had to seek help over the summer to overcome those mental issues spurred by Cronin.

Source?

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

I'm ready to call it...IF the Ducks get embarrassed tonight, Cronin is gone.

I blame you hes still here!! lmao

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I’ve posted McIlvane’s introductory press conference multiple times here. Individual development to get players ready for the NHL is what MM says his most important job is. A bunch of 2nd / 3rd / 4th round picks not being called up as 2nd year / rookies in the AHL is kinda par for the course.

He’s also running Cronin’s system down there, but I understand your trepidation.

And it very well may be a bad plan, but I think that’s the plan, might as well root for McIlvane to do well until he truly shows me otherwise.

I think Verbeek wants a "Yes" man for a head coach. Both Cronin and McIlvane are Yes men.

We've been playing man defense since Eakins, but this rush offense is a Cronin thing. McIlvane is running the same offensive and defensive system as Cronin's in the AHL and it has the same production woes as well as results for the past two seasons. Both have youths and vets on their respective rosters.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

I'm ready for a totally different voice that isn't a Yes man, but I don't think that will happen under Verbeek. Eakins wasn't a Yes man as he had conflicts with Verbeek such as where should Regenda be playing. Verbeek wanted Regenda on the NHL club, but Eakins said Regenda wasn't ready for it. Eakins won the battle, but eventually lost the war as he was fired at the end of the season.

 

[Mr Rogers]

Cro provided some context into the situation surrounding the Silf comments, which he said he was surprised about. Still don’t know if I love his approach but apparently the team just wasn’t even competing. He also said Bush called him around the time those comments came out and Bush said he was misquoted.

I appreciate the question being asked and his pretty thorough response.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I think Verbeek wants a "Yes" man for a head coach. Both Cronin and McIlvane are Yes men.

We've been playing man defense since Eakins, but this rush offense is a Cronin thing. McIlvane is running the same offensive and defensive system as Cronin's in the AHL and it has the same production woes as well as results for the past two seasons. Both have youths and vets on their respective rosters.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

View attachment 966361

I'm ready for a totally different voice that isn't a Yes man, but I don't think that will happen under Verbeek. Eakins wasn't a Yes man as he had conflicts with Verbeek such as where should Regenda be playing. Verbeek wanted Regenda on the NHL club, but Eakins said Regenda wasn't ready for it. Eakins won the battle, but eventually lost the war as he was fired at the end of the season.

A couple things. First, where did Verbeek say he wanted regenda on the NHL club and Eakins didn’t ?
Second, Eakins was never going to be the coach long term, he was a lame duck coach to tank for Bedard.
Third, I don’t know for sure, but if I had to guess, including both the AHL and the NHL we have the most rookies and second year players in the organization. As another point for this, if winning pt percentage is your main criteria for individual development (which if anyone watched McIlvane’s introductory press conference he said is the most important part of his job) you’re in for a bad time. Young teams don’t win a lot in the NHL, in fact if Montreal makes the playoffs they would be the youngest team ever to do so, at average age of 25.50. 26.00 is the youngest (twice), we are 26.48 and gonna be younger when we trade Dumo.

 

[CrazyDuck4u]

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Cro provided some context into the situation surrounding the Silf comments, which he said he was surprised about. Still don’t know if I love his approach but apparently the team just wasn’t even competing. He also said Bush called him around the time those comments came out and Bush said he was misquoted.

I appreciate the question being asked and his pretty thorough response.

I take it for granted that you wouldn’t do something like that as a coach/boss/manager unless you felt it needed to be done, so I’m not really seeing the excuse. We expect people in leadership positions to do things when their teams are underperforming to stop the bleeding. The question is whether this was an appropriate thing to do.

Cronin says, “as you know, it’s a different world.” I take this as a callback to something he’s said repeatedly before, about how you have to talk to players differently now than coaches did when he was playing. To me, that sounds like it could be a convenient way of dismissing the kind of criticism that Silf—who is no kid and wasn’t even when he was here with Cronin—is bringing.

As much as people want to keep finding ways to dismiss or minimize what we’ve been hearing, the fact remains we’re hearing it, and that’s very unusual.

 

[quackquackquack]

For the crowd comparing Cronin and Carlyle ....Randy was the right voice/coach of the Ducks 15 YEARS AGO. That style of leadership/coaching is dead. Even guys like Torts have evolved.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I take it for granted that you wouldn’t do something like that as a coach/boss/manager unless you felt it needed to be done, so I’m not really seeing the excuse. We expect people in leadership positions to do things when their teams are underperforming to stop the bleeding. The question is whether this was an appropriate thing to do.

Cronin says, “as you know, it’s a different world.” I take this as a callback to something he’s said repeatedly before, about how you have to talk to players differently now than coaches did when he was playing. To me, that sounds like it could be a convenient way of dismissing the kind of criticism that Silf—who is no kid and wasn’t even when he was here with Cronin—is bringing.

As much as people want to keep finding ways to dismiss or minimize what we’ve been hearing, the fact remains we’re hearing it, and that’s very unusual.

That loss was the 10th loss, in a 1-11-1 stretch.

Also, I just went back and read the entire 16 page discussion on that GDT and just unhinged Terry sucks, that contract is awful. LaCombe sucks, Cronin sucks, owners suck, Verbeek sucks, I’d rather get shutout than Killorn be the one to score, not watching another game this year. You actually tuned out yourself and started playing video games… whatcha play ?

A head coach ripping into his players down 0-5 on the way to their 10th regulation loss (11th total loss)in 12 games isn’t some weird thing. Silf is fine to say how he feels, and the only thing that is weird is “Cronin is an idiot.” That I think Silf should have to elaborate on that, because Cronin last year had nothing but amazing things to say about Silf, as a leader and vet.

Also, Europeans are soft …. /s

 

[robbieboy3686]

That loss was the 10th loss, in a 1-11-1 stretch.

Also, I just went back and read the entire 16 page discussion on that GDT and just unhinged Terry sucks, that contract is awful. LaCombe sucks, Cronin sucks, owners suck, Verbeek sucks, I’d rather get shutout than Killorn be the one to score, not watching another game this year. You actually tuned out yourself and started playing video games… whatcha play ?

A head coach ripping into his players down 0-5 on the way to their 10th regulation loss (11th total loss)in 12 games isn’t some weird thing. Silf is fine to say how he feels, and the only thing that is weird is “Cronin is an idiot.” That I think Silf should have to elaborate on that, because Cronin last year had nothing but amazing things to say about Silf, as a leader and vet.

Also, Europeans are soft …. /s

Can’t say I disagree with euros being softer breed of hockey player for the most part

 

[All Mighty]

Cro provided some context into the situation surrounding the Silf comments, which he said he was surprised about. Still don’t know if I love his approach but apparently the team just wasn’t even competing. He also said Bush called him around the time those comments came out and Bush said he was misquoted.

I appreciate the question being asked and his pretty thorough response.

I obviously don't know the details of exactly what Cronin said or how he behaved, but I didn't find it that outrageous that a coach would yell and challenge his players when they were playing like that (every game against Edmonton was a disaster last season). I still would prefer him gone, but this incident isn't completely out of line to me (given the information that we have).

 

[lwvs84]

Call up McIllvane and send down Cronin

We can see if he can handle the NHL for 1/3 of the season.

 

[HanSolo]

For the crowd comparing Cronin and Carlyle ....Randy was the right voice/coach of the Ducks 15 YEARS AGO. That style of leadership/coaching is dead. Even guys like Torts have evolved.

Yeah. This is the point when people complain about the criticisms of Carlyle. Like everyone here recognizes he was a good coach in his era. The problem is he didn't change with the game.

Carlyle took the team to the conference finals before the league really shifted to a universal emphasis on more speed, zone/collapse defense, and moving away from board cycle play which was really Carlyle's bread and butter. The shift started to happen around 2018 and I'd argue that Vegas modeled their approach after the cup winning Pittsburgh teams. When the league saw a cobbled together roster took that approach all the way to the finals, the whole league started playing that way. Carlyle didn't keep up. He had the players to make his older systems work (guys like Getzlaf and Kesler leading the way in that regard) and the league hadn't uniformly adapted to the new style yet. The run up to the 2018 playoffs and the eventual thrashing we got from San Jose indicated the cracks had formed and Carlyle was falling behind.

By the time he was fired, the game had completely passed him by.