Speculation: 2024-25 Coaching/Management/Ownership

[CrazyDuck4u]

We have a lot of bandwagon supporters jumping on and off after wins and losses.

We just beat two of the worst teams in the competition and both of them are on a big downswing compared to last year.

Big wins are nice but consistency is better. Cronin still needs to go.

Exactly, These wins don't mean crap.. I expect the ducks to win these games.. That last road trip was a make or break for the season I'm afraid and they failed bad!! They were 4 points out of a WC spot before the trip started.. Now they are 9 points out.. Playoffs are not going to happen..

 

[MMC]

I listen to ducks podcast who are actively rooting to lose to fire Cronin. That’s how delusional, a team focused on individual development plans for young roster players, in the second full season since…… tearing the whole thing down, feel.

And this is why Ducks podcasts suck ass

 

[Terry Yake]

We have a lot of bandwagon supporters jumping on and off after wins and losses.

We just beat two of the worst teams in the competition and both of them are on a big downswing compared to last year.

Big wins are nice but consistency is better. Cronin still needs to go.

who is jumping on the ducks bandwagon right now? lmao

some poor, misinformed souls they must be

 

[SoCal Dreaming]

Anyone can check how the team are doing with Helleson on the line up this year? I think we are winning more with him on it. He seem to be able to get the puck out the dzone more consistently plus defend better. Just curious.

Also Nashville was winning the last 5 games but broadcast said the majority was come back and they allowed 5 goals from opponents.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I agree with you, but to be fair Nashville apparently was on an impressive heater and playing really well.

Three of the wins came against Chicago and San Jose (x2). Versus SJ, Nashville allowed 11 goals against and still came away with a win b/c of their offense. They won ugly before facing us. When Nashville faced a team with a better goalie, they lost. Both Duck goalies for the game posted better Sv% than Nashville's Saros.

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Here's proof about our netminders saving our asses against Nashville:

The first four minutes of the game, Nashville had several scoring chances as the SOG was like Nash 7, Ducks 0. We could have been buried early in the game if if Gibby wasn't standing on his head. It happened again to start the 2nd period when Nashville tied up the game. Dostal, coming in for an injured Gibby for the 2nd period, limited the damage to only one goal against despite getting dominated to start the 2nd period. Look at the final tally for High Danger Chances: Ducks 8, Preds 17. Those are our goalies standing in their heads, except this time we got the goal support because the opponent's goalies were bad.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I listen to ducks podcast who are actively rooting to lose to fire Cronin. That’s how delusional, a team focused on individual development plans for young roster players, in the second full season since…… tearing the whole thing down, feel.

We have people who follow this team, are “paid” to talk about this team…. Complaining that Cronin is “ruining” development and needs to be fired asap. So they are rooting for us to lose (badly) so he is fired, which would be ruining the young players development.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

Big bad Cronin can’t hurt us anymore, 33 more games, unless we go on a run. Or worse case scenario they let him start next year and fire him at the first sign of trouble.
Anyways the narrative that Cronin / Verbeek as McIlvane are ruining the young’s development….. when everything they’ve said publicly is about setting up goals / and individual development plans to cater to each player / the importance of development to future success of the franchise. To think that everyone is so blind to see that they are causing irrevocable harm.

I'm on the Cronin won't be fired in-season group. I'm not pro Cronin. Been on that since Verbeek thought last year was a success despite earning only one extra point with a vastly superior roster and Goals Against improvement. His metric of success is vastly different from ours.

We have undeniable fact that our offensive output remains underwhelming since last year. Cronin has stated many times he cannot sacrifice his defense for offense despite being at the bottom of several defensive metrics. If it were not for our goalies standing on their heads, then it's quite possible we have a similar record to last season.

Our youth offensive talents are not made for Cronin's offense. Several of our offensive youths' productions have stalled, been inconsistent, or muted. Firing Cronin in-season would not be ruining player development if it's already being ruined. See stats below

Per Natural Stat Trick's 5v5 stats, Ducks 2023-24:

• Ducks GF: 127 goals (30th best in league)
• Ducks GA: 173 goals against (22nd best in league)
• CF% = 46.38% (27th best)
• HD Chances For attempts: 617 (30th best in leauge)
• HD Chances Against attempts: 772 (26th best in league)

Per Natural Stat Trick's 5v5 stats, Ducks 2024-25:

• Ducks GF: 85 goals (28th best in league)
• Ducks GA: 97 goals against (18th (tied) best in league)
• CF%: 45.57% (30th best)
• HD Chances For attempts: 401 (23rd best in leauge)
• HD Chances Against attempts: 529 (worst in league)

Let's look at our defensive group.

We have one defenseman who is relatively tilting the ice for the team in LaCombe. The HD Chances against and chart below reinforces that our defense is bad despite improved GA. Our GA is better is due to our goalies.

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Goal Setting and Dev Plans

It's great to have goals set and individualized plans made, but you have to have production behind said goals and plans. Both seasons look terrible at the AHL and NHL levels. Both levels are running the same offensive and defensive schemes, as denoted by McIlvane himself. Helleson didn't look good in the AHL, but looks serviceable at the NHL level. Verbeek's novel load mgmt is just that... a novel, a gimmick that hasn't panned out. Cronin's answer to many things that go wrong is, "I don't know." or "Shoot the puck more." Cronin's individual plan is to use Mac a third liner with some offense. That could really mess with a youth's mind to be pegged as one thing, when their play beforehand was more. Mac is just focused on playing a certain way for Cronin that his offensive prowess is put on the backburner. Here's quote that supports that Mac is a 3rd line checker with offense from today's the Athletic/Stephens article:

“A lot of people do kind of look at me and see that I’m a bigger person,” McTavish said. “And I definitely use that to my advantage. Sometimes I think I can do some more stuff than just that and kind of showcase my skills and stuff like that. Yeah, it’s definitely something that I’ve kind of worked on a lot, using my strength and stuff. Definitely want to use that as much as possible.”​

Our dev plan looks like youths teaching youths. The cream of the crop usually rise. Zell and Colangelo are examples of this as both are AHL all-stars. Although, that NHL jump is still a big jump. Pastujov had to figure out himself what to do in the ECHL until the AHL called him back up; he had a 1.33 ppg rate in only 12 ECHL games and by far their leading scorer and goal scorer. Luneau does look like he's picked up his offensive game under McIlvane; a cap in the feather for McIlvane. The rest of the AHL club is meh, but McIlvane isn't in charge of the roster.

A rotation of youths isn't ideal at the NHL level. That is why we have an AHL team. Problem is the Ducks only have youths available in the AHL. Gonna replace Helleson with another youth? Maybe Helleson looking good in the NHL might be better because he wasn't looking good in the AHL, but that's a knock on McIlvane, who Helleson was with last year too.
A great improvement under Cronin has been team discipline. We are a middle of the pack team in TSH (times short-handed) this year compared to the worst offender last year.

We're team reliant on our goaltenders to being great and individual effort on our offensive counters. We have three Ducks that consistently crash the net, but only two look good doing it in Terry and D LaCombe. The other player is Mac.

Anaheim should be a much better team this year in year 2 of Cronin, but several underlying metrics say we're worse this year despite earning more points/wins. We aren't meeting goals overall and several youths look worse this year compared to last year.

Yet the only person who's perspective matters is Verbeek. Verbeek can point to metrics or culture that have improved to where he might keep Cronin around for year 3.

 

[LuGBuG]

It would be a hilarious turn of events if the guy who was benching Z and killing is offense all of the sudden gets his job saved by him in this second half of the season.

 

[Firequacker]

Meh there’s like 3 people who actually root for Cronin. Unless they go on some amazing run with Zegras back, he shouldn’t be the coach next year.

If the team goes on some amazing run with Zegras back, that's a much better argument for giving Zegras the C (which tbh they probably should anyway, but that's another discussion) than it is for keeping Cronin.

I listen to ducks podcast who are actively rooting to lose to fire Cronin. That’s how delusional, a team focused on individual development plans for young roster players, in the second full season since…… tearing the whole thing down, feel.

We have people who follow this team, are “paid” to talk about this team…. Complaining that Cronin is “ruining” development and needs to be fired asap. So they are rooting for us to lose (badly) so he is fired, which would be ruining the young players development.

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

Big bad Cronin can’t hurt us anymore, 33 more games, unless we go on a run. Or worse case scenario they let him start next year and fire him at the first sign of trouble.

Anyways the narrative that Cronin / Verbeek as McIlvane are ruining the young’s development….. when everything they’ve said publicly is about setting up goals / and individual development plans to cater to each player / the importance of development to future success of the franchise. To think that everyone is so blind to see that they are causing irrevocable harm.

This phrasing is a little ambiguous. Are you saying a few more blowout losses will be ruining the kids' development? (In which case: you can't say "big bad Cronin can't hurt us anymore" because there's only 33 more games, then argue a few more blowout losses will hurt us. They're already getting blown out on a regular basis, if that's unrecoverable we're already screwed.) Or are you saying firing Cronin is what will actually ruin the development of the kids? (Which is the rhetorical equivalent of "nuh-uh," especially when your evidence that he's doing good development is basically 'development plans exist.' It is not "delusional" to not have blind faith in a coach who hasn't proved anything.)

More broadly, what you're describing is the exact same rationale as the tank crowd used. Short term pain for long term gain. If someone believes Cronin is genuinely harming the development of the youth, why would they not prefer ten blowout losses and a firing to thirty more games of actively detrimental coaching? (And yes, it's 100% possible that Verbeek has a blind spot regarding his handpicked head coach that he personally hit it off with. Do we know for sure that's what's going on? Of course not. But you often argue for assuming Verbeek's infallibility, when we know GMs make mistakes based on their personal biases and blind spots all the time. And no, allowing for the possibility that he's wrong on this subject isn't the same as calling him too dumb to do his job.)

For what it's worth, I wasn't part of the tank crowd. So I'm not actually arguing for that, beyond saying it's a perfectly rational outlook—far from the only valid one, but it's valid. My main point is, it's not like this is something new or unique to the Cronin situation. We're two years from it being pretty much the dominant logic of the fanbase (and this board was basically the only place where you could disagree with it without instantly being called a bad and stupid fan).

Personally, the "our goalie alone stole that one" kind of wins* have really started pissing me off. I still want the team to win, but I want them to win by actually playing better hockey. If the eighteen guys in front of the goalie aren't going to play better hockey, I want them getting their deserved losses, rather than having the goalies stand on their heads so disingenuous trolls everywhere can pretend "better record means better team!" while every team defensive metric under Coach We Can't Sacrifice Defense continues to regress from last season.
*Talking Carolina here, not Nashville. Nashville at least the offense actually did stuff. Carolina, only two players showed up, but one of them was Dostal so "look they beat a good team!"

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I'm on the Cronin won't be fired in-season group. I'm not pro Cronin. Been on that since Verbeek thought last year was a success despite earning only one extra point with a vastly superior roster and Goals Against improvement. His metric of success is vastly different from ours.

We have undeniable fact that our offensive output remains underwhelming since last year. Cronin has stated many times he cannot sacrifice his defense for offense despite being at the bottom of several defensive metrics. If it were not for our goalies standing on their heads, then it's quite possible we have a similar record to last season.

Our youth offensive talents are not made for Cronin's offense. Several of our offensive youths' productions have stalled, been inconsistent, or muted. Firing Cronin in-season would not be ruining player development if it's already being ruined. See stats below

Per Natural Stat Trick's 5v5 stats, Ducks 2023-24:

• Ducks GF: 127 goals (30th best in league)
• Ducks GA: 173 goals against (22nd best in league)
• CF% = 46.38% (27th best)
• HD Chances For attempts: 617 (30th best in leauge)
• HD Chances Against attempts: 772 (26th best in league)

Per Natural Stat Trick's 5v5 stats, Ducks 2024-25:

• Ducks GF: 85 goals (28th best in league)
• Ducks GA: 97 goals against (18th (tied) best in league)
• CF%: 45.57% (30th best)
• HD Chances For attempts: 401 (23rd best in leauge)
• HD Chances Against attempts: 529 (worst in league)

Let's look at our defensive group.

We have one defenseman who is relatively tilting the ice for the team in LaCombe. The HD Chances against and chart below reinforces that our defense is bad despite improved GA. Our GA is better is due to our goalies.

View attachment 968039

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Goal Setting and Dev Plans

It's great to have goals set and individualized plans made, but you have to have production behind said goals and plans. Both seasons look terrible at the AHL and NHL levels. Both levels are running the same offensive and defensive schemes, as denoted by McIlvane himself. Helleson didn't look good in the AHL, but looks serviceable at the NHL level. Verbeek's novel load mgmt is just that... a novel, a gimmick that hasn't panned out. Cronin's answer to many things that go wrong is, "I don't know." or "Shoot the puck more." Cronin's individual plan is to use Mac a third liner with some offense. That could really mess with a youth's mind to be pegged as one thing, when their play beforehand was more. Mac is just focused on playing a certain way for Cronin that his offensive prowess is put on the backburner. Here's quote that supports that Mac is a 3rd line checker with offense from today's the Athletic/Stephens article:

“A lot of people do kind of look at me and see that I’m a bigger person,” McTavish said. “And I definitely use that to my advantage. Sometimes I think I can do some more stuff than just that and kind of showcase my skills and stuff like that. Yeah, it’s definitely something that I’ve kind of worked on a lot, using my strength and stuff. Definitely want to use that as much as possible.”​

Our dev plan looks like youths teaching youths. The cream of the crop usually rise. Zell and Colangelo are examples of this as both are AHL all-stars. Although, that NHL jump is still a big jump. Pastujov had to figure out himself what to do in the ECHL until the AHL called him back up; he had a 1.33 ppg rate in only 12 ECHL games and by far their leading scorer and goal scorer. Luneau does look like he's picked up his offensive game under McIlvane; a cap in the feather for McIlvane. The rest of the AHL club is meh, but McIlvane isn't in charge of the roster.

A rotation of youths isn't ideal at the NHL level. That is why we have an AHL team. Problem is the Ducks only have youths available in the AHL. Gonna replace Helleson with another youth? Maybe Helleson looking good in the NHL might be better because he wasn't looking good in the AHL, but that's a knock on McIlvane, who Helleson was with last year too.
A great improvement under Cronin has been team discipline. We are a middle of the pack team in TSH (times short-handed) this year compared to the worst offender last year.

We're team reliant on our goaltenders to being great and individual effort on our offensive counters. We have three Ducks that consistently crash the net, but only two look good doing it in Terry and D LaCombe. The other player is Mac.

Anaheim should be a much better team this year in year 2 of Cronin, but several underlying metrics say we're worse this year despite earning more points/wins. We aren't meeting goals overall and several youths look worse this year compared to last year.

Yet the only person whose perspective matters is Verbeek. Verbeek can point to metrics or culture that have improved to where he might keep Cronin around for year 3.

I am tired of you pushing this narrative that Cronin only did 1pt better with a vastly superior roster.

“The Ducks opening night roster featured 12 players 25 years old or younger and six rookies (Leo Carlsson, Pavel Mintyukov, Tristan Luneau, Jackson LaCombe, Bo Groulx, and Lukas Dostal).

As mentioned previously, the Ducks made five top-ten selections in the NHL entry drafts between 2019-2023 (Trevor Zegras, Jamie Drysdale, Mason McTavish, Pavel Mintyukov, and Leo Carlsson), and every one of those players missed significant time due to injury this season. Max Jones (24th overall in 2016) and Isac Lundestrom (23rd in '18) were also former first round picks who missed large portions of the season with ailments.

"It's definitely hard," Ryan Strome stated after a Ducks practice in March when asked about the lack of nightly lineup consistency. "It's just much easier when you know the tendencies of guys. For myself, going back and forth from center to wing is tough."


How many times did McT - Leo - Zegras - Killorn - Terry - all play on the ice together in the same game?

I’ll give you a hint, more than 1 less than 10.

 

[MCB]

I'm mostly just repeating what others have said, but I think there is a category where we want him gone but we know it won't happen:

I want Cronin gone, away from our developing youth as quickly as possible, however, I doubt it will happen in season because of several reasons: owners not wanting to pay for two coaches (and no I don't think they are cheap, although broadcom took a big hit today so...), no replacement, Verbeek being stubborn and not admitting he was wrong, etc etc.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Agreed. The only thing that would chance my opinion on Cronin is if he finds a way to get the power play going and the young guys go on a tear to end the year

I have serious doubts on either

Not even that would save him in my eyes. When you look the season in it's entirety, team has played like total garbage (in all three zones). The only reason we're not around 35 points is Gibson-Dostal duo. They're (the team) just at unacceptable level at this point.

 

[Hey234]

Even in the wins, the structure of the team is not consistent. Are they a transition team? No, Cronin said so. Are they a possession team? No, Cronin said so. So, what are they then?

The way they play does not lead to success. Individuals going into hot streaks, and the continued incredible play of the goalies are responsible for the wins. It is not sustainable for long term success. Cronin, the human, is not the issue. Sure, he's said rough things but those can evolve and improve. It's his mindset towards the team. What he wants does not fit his team and his multiple system adjustments haven't worked.

 

[Leonardo87]

It would be a hilarious turn of events if the guy who was benching Z and killing is offense all of the sudden gets his job saved by him in this second half of the season.

Three things need to happen for me to lay off Cronin, and maybe even don’t mind if extended..

1.) They are on the bubble of a playoff spot, 1st/2nd week of March with a .500 record or better.

2.) Z and Mac continue to produce like they are now and continue to get going, along with Leo, who needs to hit the scoresheet more. That trio, would like to see them producing over a .60 PPG in the last 30 or so games.

3.) @MMC needs to get me an exclusive meet and greet with Wild Wing.

Is this all impossible? Heck no, well maybe the Wild Wing part, lol. The PP will be key with that along with consistency. Score more goals and with this solid goaltending, will get more wins. Gotta score at least 3 goals most games the rest of the way, and then it’s very possible.

Even after those two 5 goal games they are still dead last in the league in scoring, so still a lot of work needs to be done.

 

[MMC]

3.) @MMC needs to get me an exclusive meet and greet with Wild Wing.

If you would've came to the last game, this would've been doable

 

[Leonardo87]

If you would've came to the last game, this would've been doable

I’ll be there end of March, will be there the week the Rangers are in town. Make is happen dude! Lol.

 

[Ducks DVM]

Three things need to happen for me to lay off Cronin, and maybe even don’t mind if extended..

1.) They are on the bubble of a playoff spot, 1st/2nd week of March with a .500 record or better.

2.) Z and Mac continue to produce like they are now and continue to get going, along with Leo, who needs to hit the scoresheet more. That trio, would like to see them producing over a .60 PPG in the last 30 or so games.

3.) @MMC needs to get me an exclusive meet and greet with Wild Wing.

Is this all impossible? Heck no, well maybe the Wild Wing part, lol. The PP will be key with that along with consistency. Score more goals and with this solid goaltending, will get more wins. Gotta score at least 3 goals most games the rest of the way, and then it’s very possible.

Even after those two 5 goal games they are still dead last in the league in scoring, so still a lot of work needs to be done.

If you would've came to the last game, this would've been doable

I’ll be there end of March, will be there the week the Rangers are in town. Make is happen dude! Lol.

Confirmed, @MMC is Wild Wing.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

Aor

If the team goes on some amazing run with Zegras back, that's a much better argument for giving Zegras the C (which tbh they probably should anyway, but that's another discussion) than it is for keeping Cronin.


This phrasing is a little ambiguous. Are you saying a few more blowout losses will be ruining the kids' development? (In which case: you can't say "big bad Cronin can't hurt us anymore" because there's only 33 more games, then argue a few more blowout losses will hurt us. They're already getting blown out on a regular basis, if that's unrecoverable we're already screwed.) Or are you saying firing Cronin is what will actually ruin the development of the kids? (Which is the rhetorical equivalent of "nuh-uh," especially when your evidence that he's doing good development is basically 'development plans exist.' It is not "delusional" to not have blind faith in a coach who hasn't proved anything.)

More broadly, what you're describing is the exact same rationale as the tank crowd used. Short term pain for long term gain. If someone believes Cronin is genuinely harming the development of the youth, why would they not prefer ten blowout losses and a firing to thirty more games of actively detrimental coaching? (And yes, it's 100% possible that Verbeek has a blind spot regarding his handpicked head coach that he personally hit it off with. Do we know for sure that's what's going on? Of course not. But you often argue for assuming Verbeek's infallibility, when we know GMs make mistakes based on their personal biases and blind spots all the time. And no, allowing for the possibility that he's wrong on this subject isn't the same as calling him too dumb to do his job.)

For what it's worth, I wasn't part of the tank crowd. So I'm not actually arguing for that, beyond saying it's a perfectly rational outlook—far from the only valid one, but it's valid. My main point is, it's not like this is something new or unique to the Cronin situation. We're two years from it being pretty much the dominant logic of the fanbase (and this board was basically the only place where you could disagree with it without instantly being called a bad and stupid fan).

Personally, the "our goalie alone stole that one" kind of wins* have really started pissing me off. I still want the team to win, but I want them to win by actually playing better hockey. If the eighteen guys in front of the goalie aren't going to play better hockey, I want them getting their deserved losses, rather than having the goalies stand on their heads so disingenuous trolls everywhere can pretend "better record means better team!" while every team defensive metric under Coach We Can't Sacrifice Defense continues to regress from last season.
*Talking Carolina here, not Nashville. Nashville at least the offense actually did stuff. Carolina, only two players showed up, but one of them was Dostal so "look they beat a good team!"

Sorry I don’t believe 33 games of Cronin will change the development of our young kids. But people who argue that it will negatively affect (even 1 more game so we have to fire cronin yesterday) …. Then if they believe that they believe one more blowout loss will change the trajectory of our prospects.

It’s more so, if you want Cronin fired so badly because (universal you) you think he is ruining our prospects, then clearly rooting for the team to lose, you are rooting for the ruining of our prospects.

Like my point is, there are two types of people in the world.
1) those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

Does that make sense ? I don’t think Cronin is ruining our prospects, I don’t think 33 games is going to do anything longterm negative or positive for this franchise.

Verbeek is not infallible, but the default mode of most people on this sub, is to think he’s “too stubborn” to admit his mistake and fire his clearly incompetent coach.

Verbeek has help build a dynasty in Tampa Bay, helped the start of Detroit’s rebuild, and is just starting the try to be competitive with outmatched players who are too young and inexperienced to win nightly in the best league in the world. He has 16 years of being an executive at the NHL, was a captain while playing in the NHL, won a Stanley cup.

I trust his plan more than people on here going off of incomplete data. I’ve said multiple times, all rebuilds kinda have the same idea on how to do them properly. Luck has a lot to do with it, lucky your youth pops at the same time, lucky you drafted Barkov and not a bust, luck that you can bridge a few guys and afford a star while you are ascending the rankings.

Also I’m here for Captain Z….. McT or Leo …. But I like Z

 

[JAHV]

Aor


Sorry I don’t believe 33 games of Cronin will change the development of our young kids. But people who argue that it will negatively affect (even 1 more game so we have to fire cronin yesterday) …. Then if they believe that they believe one more blowout loss will change the trajectory of our prospects.

It’s more so, if you want Cronin fired so badly because (universal you) you think he is ruining our prospects, then clearly rooting for the team to lose, you are rooting for the ruining of our prospects.

Like my point is, there are two types of people in the world.
1) those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

Does that make sense ? I don’t think Cronin is ruining our prospects, I don’t think 33 games is going to do anything longterm negative or positive for this franchise.

Verbeek is not infallible, but the default mode of most people on this sub, is to think he’s “too stubborn” to admit his mistake and fire his clearly incompetent coach.

Verbeek has help build a dynasty in Tampa Bay, helped the start of Detroit’s rebuild, and is just starting the try to be competitive with outmatched players who are too young and inexperienced to win nightly in the best league in the world. He has 16 years of being an executive at the NHL, was a captain while playing in the NHL, won a Stanley cup.

I trust his plan more than people on here going off of incomplete data. I’ve said multiple times, all rebuilds kinda have the same idea on how to do them properly. Luck has a lot to do with it, lucky your youth pops at the same time, lucky you drafted Barkov and not a bust, luck that you can bridge a few guys and afford a star while you are ascending the rankings.

Also I’m here for Captain Z….. McT or Leo …. But I like Z

I'm not in favor of firing Verbeek at this point. I think he gets two more seasons and one more coaching hire. I do think there is an alarming lack of evidence that Cronin is developing the kids, which is his most important job, so if there is a coach available who can do that, I'm for firing him now. That said, I don't think it happens, whether because of Verbeek's stubbornness, his desire not to jeopardize his own job, or his informed opinion that Cronin is actually doing what he's being asked to do.

But I'm curious as to your comment about "incomplete data." When will the data be complete? I'm fully on board with the notion that making quick, rash decisions based on small sample sizes is foolish and potentially damaging. But we've had a season and a half of Cronin. There's scant data to support the idea that he's doing his job. And there is mounting data (both qualitative and quantitative) that he's not. When will the data be complete?

 

[Firequacker]

Sorry I don’t believe 33 games of Cronin will change the development of our young kids. But people who argue that it will negatively affect (even 1 more game so we have to fire cronin yesterday) …. Then if they believe that they believe one more blowout loss will change the trajectory of our prospects.

It’s more so, if you want Cronin fired so badly because (universal you) you think he is ruining our prospects, then clearly rooting for the team to lose, you are rooting for the ruining of our prospects.

Like my point is, there are two types of people in the world.
1) those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

Does that make sense ? I don’t think Cronin is ruining our prospects, I don’t think 33 games is going to do anything longterm negative or positive for this franchise.

It makes sense, but that logic doesn't really follow. For two main reasons.
-Bad coaching and bad losses aren't the same thing. If Cronin's coaching is indeed doing permanent harm to the development of the kids, he's doing it win or lose.
-If you do believe that Cronin is ruining our prospects and that blowout losses cause irreversible damage, again, the blowout losses are already happening under Cronin. May as well string them all together, get him fired, and minimize the harm done, rather than keep him around for his coaching to do more damage while still suffering the damaging losses.

I am admittedly getting deep into devil's advocate territory here (wait why is New Jersey involved in this?) because "every game of Cronin is doing irreversible damage" isn't my position. Mine is more like the saying the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, the second best time is today, the third best time is 33 games from now. But I get where they're coming from.

Verbeek is not infallible, but the default mode of most people on this sub, is to think he’s “too stubborn” to admit his mistake and fire his clearly incompetent coach.

Verbeek has help build a dynasty in Tampa Bay, helped the start of Detroit’s rebuild, and is just starting the try to be competitive with outmatched players who are too young and inexperienced to win nightly in the best league in the world. He has 16 years of being an executive at the NHL, was a captain while playing in the NHL, won a Stanley cup.

You should maybe look up Ron Hextall's pre-GM credentials. They line up fairly well with what you've cited for Verbeek, here and elsewhere.
(I am not saying Verbeek is anywhere near that bad. I'm not even convinced he's bad versus having one significant blind spot. Just saying that resume isn't everything.)

Is Verbeek just too stubborn to fire Cronin? I dunno. It's been reported (it was on 32 Thoughts IIRC, but I don't have that link on me, sorry) that some of the players were lobbying for Cronin to be gone after last season. Instead, Verbeek told Cronin to tone down the hardassery and hired a "player's coach" type of assistant as a counterweight.
To me that can indicate a couple of things. It can indicate Cronin got another chance but is on a real short leash now, or it can indicate Verbeek is willing to go to significant lengths to keep His Guy. Does this season give the impression that he's on a short leash?

I trust his plan more than people on here going off of incomplete data. I’ve said multiple times, all rebuilds kinda have the same idea on how to do them properly. Luck has a lot to do with it, lucky your youth pops at the same time, lucky you drafted Barkov and not a bust, luck that you can bridge a few guys and afford a star while you are ascending the rankings.

Also I’m here for Captain Z….. McT or Leo …. But I like Z

You are also going off incomplete data, is the thing. Your take is based on credentials and faith versus what's right in front of our lying eyes... and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, until you keep coming in hot with the passive-aggression about it. People are delusional for... drawing different conclusions from the same incomplete data and advocating for what they think is the best path forward? If that's true, you'd have to be just as delusional to believe there's no fire behind all this smoke, no?
I would wager that most Ducks fans hope you'll ultimately be right about Verbeek. I certainly do. But right now, we at least have enough data for some valid questions.

Anyway, to end on a positive note, Z for C!

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Aor


Sorry I don’t believe 33 games of Cronin will change the development of our young kids. But people who argue that it will negatively affect (even 1 more game so we have to fire cronin yesterday) …. Then if they believe that they believe one more blowout loss will change the trajectory of our prospects.

It’s more so, if you want Cronin fired so badly because (universal you) you think he is ruining our prospects, then clearly rooting for the team to lose, you are rooting for the ruining of our prospects.

Like my point is, there are two types of people in the world.
1) those who can extrapolate from incomplete data.

Does that make sense ? I don’t think Cronin is ruining our prospects, I don’t think 33 games is going to do anything longterm negative or positive for this franchise.

Verbeek is not infallible, but the default mode of most people on this sub, is to think he’s “too stubborn” to admit his mistake and fire his clearly incompetent coach.

Verbeek has help build a dynasty in Tampa Bay, helped the start of Detroit’s rebuild, and is just starting the try to be competitive with outmatched players who are too young and inexperienced to win nightly in the best league in the world. He has 16 years of being an executive at the NHL, was a captain while playing in the NHL, won a Stanley cup.

I trust his plan more than people on here going off of incomplete data. I’ve said multiple times, all rebuilds kinda have the same idea on how to do them properly. Luck has a lot to do with it, lucky your youth pops at the same time, lucky you drafted Barkov and not a bust, luck that you can bridge a few guys and afford a star while you are ascending the rankings.

Also I’m here for Captain Z….. McT or Leo …. But I like Z

It would be worth firing Cronin just for the fact that the team will enter the summer break with different mindset, different set of instructions.

Besides that, bolded part makes no sense.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I'm not in favor of firing Verbeek at this point. I think he gets two more seasons and one more coaching hire. I do think there is an alarming lack of evidence that Cronin is developing the kids, which is his most important job, so if there is a coach available who can do that, I'm for firing him now. That said, I don't think it happens, whether because of Verbeek's stubbornness, his desire not to jeopardize his own job, or his informed opinion that Cronin is actually doing what he's being asked to do.

But I'm curious as to your comment about "incomplete data." When will the data be complete? I'm fully on board with the notion that making quick, rash decisions based on small sample sizes is foolish and potentially damaging. But we've had a season and a half of Cronin. There's scant data to support the idea that he's doing his job. And there is mounting data (both qualitative and quantitative) that he's not. When will the data be complete?

We will never have the complete data, we don’t truly know what the locker room is like, what Verbeek’s individual plan for development is, what plan ownership have with Verbeek. What Verbeek’s plan was with Cronin, being a stop gap coach and all.

The underlining numbers and regression for prospects is all fair game to criticize, the fact goaltending is saving us night in night out too.

I did a whole bunch of research on the 4 youngest teams to make the playoffs and just lots of weird outliers.

Toronto in strike shortened season, and the only time out of 11 seasons they made the playoffs. 7 before and 3 after.

2012-13 Toronto Maple Leafs Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Toronto Maple Leafs Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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Pittsburgh with generational talent (that word gets thrown around too much) Sid the Kid / Malkin / Staal / and MAF.

2006-07 Pittsburgh Penguins Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Pittsburgh Penguins Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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Columbus who didn’t make it like 2-3 before or 3-4 after.

2013-14 Columbus Blue Jackets Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

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New York rangers who had a bunch of guys 25-28 just traded for AP and stuff, kinda our goal in 4-5 years.

2019-20 New York Rangers Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

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The Avs, with Nathan at 22 / Landeskog at 24 / rantanen at 21. The year before they had 48 pts for the season with Bednar, think they got Makar for that bad season too ? This is kinda the closest to us, Nathan is also really good.

2017-18 Colorado Avalanche Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

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And here is us, and why I’m excited. We clearly are playing an offensive style not suited for our team at this stage in their development. But we have so many young players and more on the way (currently in the AHL pipeline, who are big boys who can play that brand, plus some skilled smaller guys, and Sennecke)

2024-25 Anaheim Ducks Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

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We are legit 2 years away in my opinion from being a playoff team, Cronin won’t be coach by then. Hopefully Verbeek picks the right successor, and hopefully Cronin is doing “his” job whatever that is in Verbeek’s eye.

It would be worth firing Cronin just for the fact that the team will enter the summer break with different mindset, different set of instructions.

Besides that, bolded part makes no sense.

It’s hyperbole to say 33 games of more Cronin isn’t going to ruin our prospects the same way 1 game won’t. But summer break and all that makes a difference, I just think Cronin will be back next year to start the year.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

It makes sense, but that logic doesn't really follow. For two main reasons.
-Bad coaching and bad losses aren't the same thing. If Cronin's coaching is indeed doing permanent harm to the development of the kids, he's doing it win or lose.
-If you do believe that Cronin is ruining our prospects and that blowout losses cause irreversible damage, again, the blowout losses are already happening under Cronin. May as well string them all together, get him fired, and minimize the harm done, rather than keep him around for his coaching to do more damage while still suffering the damaging losses.

I am admittedly getting deep into devil's advocate territory here (wait why is New Jersey involved in this?) because "every game of Cronin is doing irreversible damage" isn't my position. Mine is more like the saying the best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, the second best time is today, the third best time is 33 games from now. But I get where they're coming from.

You should maybe look up Ron Hextall's pre-GM credentials. They line up fairly well with what you've cited for Verbeek, here and elsewhere.
(I am not saying Verbeek is anywhere near that bad. I'm not even convinced he's bad versus having one significant blind spot. Just saying that resume isn't everything.)

Is Verbeek just too stubborn to fire Cronin? I dunno. It's been reported (it was on 32 Thoughts IIRC, but I don't have that link on me, sorry) that some of the players were lobbying for Cronin to be gone after last season. Instead, Verbeek told Cronin to tone down the hardassery and hired a "player's coach" type of assistant as a counterweight.
To me that can indicate a couple of things. It can indicate Cronin got another chance but is on a real short leash now, or it can indicate Verbeek is willing to go to significant lengths to keep His Guy. Does this season give the impression that he's on a short leash?

You are also going off incomplete data, is the thing. Your take is based on credentials and faith versus what's right in front of our lying eyes... and there's nothing necessarily wrong with that, until you keep coming in hot with the passive-aggression about it. People are delusional for... drawing different conclusions from the same incomplete data and advocating for what they think is the best path forward? If that's true, you'd have to be just as delusional to believe there's no fire behind all this smoke, no?
I would wager that most Ducks fans hope you'll ultimately be right about Verbeek. I certainly do. But right now, we at least have enough data for some valid questions.

Anyway, to end on a positive note, Z for C!

I am definitely going off incomplete data, but I’m in favor of the guys who have all the data, if that makes sense. Like Verbeek has added some nice pcs via free agency, nothing game changing but winners to build his “type” of team. He’s made some pro value trades, got his draft capital he said he wanted. He just hasn’t done enough to lose my trust.

Cronin I can’t change anyone’s mind on, and no one can change mine. He was brought in to “build a work ethic / compete level / culture”. Hiring a 60 year coach for these young guys and a 37 year old coach for the AHL just screams stop gap coach and his heir apparent.

Was that the plan ? Maybe, makes sense to me. Is it still the plan ? Maybe, maybe not.

I doubt Verbeek has only 2 years left and 1 more coach, unless we are picking top 5 (this year and the next 2). If we make small increments like Detroit (which I think our pipeline is more talented, so we shouldn’t be there) he will probably be safe for 3-4 years.

But I have no idea. I just think Verbeek gets an unfair rap, like the stubborn thing, makes zero sense to me and is pure speculation based off of not liking the guy. The his shelf life is tied to 2 coaches, makes perfect sense for why he doesn’t pull the trigger, I don’t think that’s the case per say, but it’s a totally fair argument.

And I don’t believe the blowout losses mean anything in terms to development, I was just making a dumb statement trying to say, if people want Cronin gone so bad because development I don’t think 33 games is going to ruin the kids or make the kids amazing.

I just find some of the Cronin hate weird, like last year players took steps. Zelly / McT / Leo looked electric / Dostal / LaCombe (we know how much he improved with all hockey duckies posts hahah) / minty showed flashes when given easier assignments (hockey duckies handiwork again). Zegras took a big step back, but was injured played 31 games, looked better as an “overall” player. And that was all stats based. And it’s only 1 PT better with an better roster.

This year the pts are there but the stats aren’t, once again for many sophomores who slump a lot in this league. Verbeek said once people get film and game plan for players it’s tough for young guys. Now it’s who cares about wins, the players aren’t taking steps in the score sheet.

Cronin can be fired today and I wouldn’t care at all, as long as Verbeek has his guy. I just don’t think that guy is available right now, or is down in the AHL. I’d rather wait to see what good coaches get fired for poor performance in the playoffs (Carolina maybe ?) than throw a bandaid on the situation….. unless things are that bad behind the scenes.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

We will never have the complete data, we don’t truly know what the locker room is like, what Verbeek’s individual plan for development is, what plan ownership have with Verbeek. What Verbeek’s plan was with Cronin, being a stop gap coach and all.

The underlining numbers and regression for prospects is all fair game to criticize, the fact goaltending is saving us night in night out too.

I did a whole bunch of research on the 4 youngest teams to make the playoffs and just lots of weird outliers.

Toronto in strike shortened season, and the only time out of 11 seasons they made the playoffs. 7 before and 3 after.

2012-13 Toronto Maple Leafs Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Toronto Maple Leafs Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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Pittsburgh with generational talent (that word gets thrown around too much) Sid the Kid / Malkin / Staal / and MAF.

2006-07 Pittsburgh Penguins Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Pittsburgh Penguins Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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Columbus who didn’t make it like 2-3 before or 3-4 after.

2013-14 Columbus Blue Jackets Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Columbus Blue Jackets Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

www.hockey-reference.com

New York rangers who had a bunch of guys 25-28 just traded for AP and stuff, kinda our goal in 4-5 years.

2019-20 New York Rangers Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest New York Rangers Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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The Avs, with Nathan at 22 / Landeskog at 24 / rantanen at 21. The year before they had 48 pts for the season with Bednar, think they got Makar for that bad season too ? This is kinda the closest to us, Nathan is also really good.

2017-18 Colorado Avalanche Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Colorado Avalanche Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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And here is us, and why I’m excited. We clearly are playing an offensive style not suited for our team at this stage in their development. But we have so many young players and more on the way (currently in the AHL pipeline, who are big boys who can play that brand, plus some skilled smaller guys, and Sennecke)

2024-25 Anaheim Ducks Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts | Hockey-Reference.com

Check out the latest Anaheim Ducks Roster, Stats, Injuries, Scores, Results, Shootouts and more on Hockey-Reference.com

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We are legit 2 years away in my opinion from being a playoff team, Cronin won’t be coach by then. Hopefully Verbeek picks the right successor, and hopefully Cronin is doing “his” job whatever that is in Verbeek’s eye.


It’s hyperbole to say 33 games of more Cronin isn’t going to ruin our prospects the same way 1 game won’t. But summer break and all that makes a difference, I just think Cronin will be back next year to start the year.

The point was development of kids, not reaching the playoffs. That's moving the goal post again.

A couple of off-season ago, I made a five-year chart of which prospects were going where within those five years. Last year, I said Verbeek was rushing several prospects to the NHL level in Carlsson, Minty, and Luneau; I was expecting LaCombe to be in the NHL last year. I understood why Verbeek did it, which was to shorten the rebuild time. The following season has shown us that Carlsson, Minty, Luneau, and Zell have struggled. Oddly enough, Carlsson' offense has been muted, but his defense is high. Whereas defense is a struggle for Minty, Zell, and Luneau.

But Verbeek inherited the Murray rebuild class. That makes the progression look worse, especially when Z was scoring over 60 points and 23 goals for each of his seasons under Eakins and that offense was stripped away from Z under Cronin.

---

Benching kids or even low-balling their potential does have drastic effects. Here's a recent article on Dylan Strome from ESPN that covers his struggles early in his career to find an org helpful to develop him. Here's an excerpt of his struggles in that article:

Strome produced well in Chicago over the next two years as well -- notching 21 goals and 55 points in 98 outings -- and signed a two-year, $6 million contract extension in January 2021.​

​

Then the wheels began to fall off.​

​

The Blackhawks endured a brutal start to the 2021-22 season, going 1-9-2 and seeing coach Jeremy Colliton fired. Strome was a healthy scratch in seven of Chicago's first 11 games, and it wasn't until Colliton was out -- and interim head coach Derek King stepped in -- that Strome was back in a top-six position. But the previous benching had taken its toll.​

​

"I feel like when you're drafted high, you get a little longer leash and people know that the skill is there and it's in you to play well," Strome said. "So then when there are times where you haven't played in five games and then you go in and you don't play very well and then you're out again and suddenly it's like, 'When's the next time you're even going to play again?'​

​

"I always believed in myself, but you question, 'What's going to happen here?' You think to yourself, 'How long can I do this for? How long are they going to allow me to do this for?'"​

​

King could see the strain on Strome when he took over from Colliton. The goofiness that defined Strome to others was kept well hidden -- at first -- by the player's determination to be taken seriously.​

​

"He put his nose to the grindstone and said, 'I can do this and I'm going to do it,' and he just worked hard," King said. "I knew how good he was. I wanted to get him in and get him playing. When it was game time he would knuckle down, and he took advantage when he got his chance."​

​

Strome admits he didn't walk through those rough patches alone. Reaching out for support kept the frustration and doubts from boiling over.​

​

"When you get home after you've been a scratch, it's easy to be disappointed," Strome said. "My dad was someone I talked to every day about situations, and he was just trying to keep me positive and realizing chances are going to come. Family was the biggest factor in getting through that, but I also had a few good friends on the team, too, like DeBrincat and Kaner, that were there for me in tough times, and I'll always be thankful for that."​

I can easily see a similar situation for Z or Mac to where we get rid of them and they flourish in a different environments. Strome was the #3 pick in the 2015 draft.

 

[TheDarkWingThatDucks]

I’ve made my point on developing the young players countless times. If you don’t want to believe what I believe that’s fine, but you aren’t going to change my mind this year. I’m not worried about 1st and 2nd year players struggling to find the score sheet.

Verbeek / Cronin / McIlvane / Scotty are all on record saying player development is the most important thing.

I don’t just blindly believe behind the scenes everything is going 100% perfect according to plan, I also don’t just look at Leo isn’t putting up points, his advanced stats aren’t as good as last year and say that = he’s being ruined by Cronin and Co.

I am willing to let Verbeek’s plan play out. That’s really all this come downs too. I trust verbeek has a plan (I’ve even spelt out what I believe that is multiple times, by using the migration event / interviews with Alexis / Cronin and McIlvane interviews). Like I am taking things they say and drawing conclusions from them. Doesn’t mean I’m right, doesn’t mean it will work.

What will it take to change that, trading a McT or Z would definitely make me question the direction of this franchise. We shouldn’t be trading any young player currently playing in the NHL. If we trade ONE young defenseman / 1st round pick / prospect in the AHL for a bonafide top 6 player, sure that could make sense.

The same reason I wouldn’t trade Z and Dry for Eichel, we aren’t good enough to win, let the young guys develop.

I said multiple times, I believe the young kids will start to take the reins a little more down the stretch, as it was probably a way to shelter the kids from the full 82 games schedule.

All and all I’ve made my point multiple times about how I don’t think we are on the wrong track development wise. Is it all roses and going as fast as I thought? No.

Awful analogy but if I were to tell you I’m going to jump into quick sand, and I have a plan to get out safely. Then at the first sign of trouble starting panicking, well bad things would happen.

Our fanbase is panicking for the most part, and that’s fine, i just watched some kings twitter people lose their mind and made me feel good about us here.

You mention Verbeek rushed prospects to the NHL, but then when he does things to mitigate that risk (Leo plan / D rotation / lean on the vets early in the season / Zelly makeAHL all star and playing 27 games or whatever in the NHL / Luneau being conditioned in AHL sent to world juniors) the stats aren’t good, so development isn’t working.

It’s too early, in my opinion, in the rebuild to be concerned about 18-19-20-21 years olds not performing consistently in the NHL.

This doesn’t mean we should as a fan base question decisions, have conversations about negatives and positives of our team.

It just gets tiring to hear Verbeek is too stubborn to fire Cronin. (Or your personal favorite, Cronin only did 1 pt better with a superior roster that you keep trying to peddle). Instead of, why hasn’t Verbeek fired Cronin, our underlining stats are awful, why in the world would anyone let this guy keep coaching ?

The difference being one is looking for an honest conversation assuming our GM has a plan and reason for what’s going on, and looking for insight as to maybe why? The other being I’m mad and don’t like Verbeek he must be dumb.

Like I’m still mad we didn’t draft Lambert, doesn’t mean I automatically think everything Verbeek does is wrong and ruining this franchise ….. yet.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

I am definitely going off incomplete data, but I’m in favor of the guys who have all the data, if that makes sense. Like Verbeek has added some nice pcs via free agency, nothing game changing but winners to build his “type” of team. He’s made some pro value trades, got his draft capital he said he wanted. He just hasn’t done enough to lose my trust.

Cronin I can’t change anyone’s mind on, and no one can change mine. He was brought in to “build a work ethic / compete level / culture”. Hiring a 60 year coach for these young guys and a 37 year old coach for the AHL just screams stop gap coach and his heir apparent.

Was that the plan ? Maybe, makes sense to me. Is it still the plan ? Maybe, maybe not.

I doubt Verbeek has only 2 years left and 1 more coach, unless we are picking top 5 (this year and the next 2). If we make small increments like Detroit (which I think our pipeline is more talented, so we shouldn’t be there) he will probably be safe for 3-4 years.

But I have no idea. I just think Verbeek gets an unfair rap, like the stubborn thing, makes zero sense to me and is pure speculation based off of not liking the guy. The his shelf life is tied to 2 coaches, makes perfect sense for why he doesn’t pull the trigger, I don’t think that’s the case per say, but it’s a totally fair argument.

And I don’t believe the blowout losses mean anything in terms to development, I was just making a dumb statement trying to say, if people want Cronin gone so bad because development I don’t think 33 games is going to ruin the kids or make the kids amazing.

I just find some of the Cronin hate weird, like last year players took steps. Zelly / McT / Leo looked electric / Dostal / LaCombe (we know how much he improved with all hockey duckies posts hahah) / minty showed flashes when given easier assignments (hockey duckies handiwork again). Zegras took a big step back, but was injured played 31 games, looked better as an “overall” player. And that was all stats based. And it’s only 1 PT better with an better roster.

This year the pts are there but the stats aren’t, once again for many sophomores who slump a lot in this league. Verbeek said once people get film and game plan for players it’s tough for young guys. Now it’s who cares about wins, the players aren’t taking steps in the score sheet.

Cronin can be fired today and I wouldn’t care at all, as long as Verbeek has his guy. I just don’t think that guy is available right now, or is down in the AHL. I’d rather wait to see what good coaches get fired for poor performance in the playoffs (Carolina maybe ?) than throw a bandaid on the situation….. unless things are that bad behind the scenes.

I have a different reason of disdain for Verbeek, it's that you can't trust his words. When Verbeek took over, he praised everything in our org from vets, to youths, to prospects being great that the next step was to become contenders. Instead, he blew up the team at the TDL and reset the rebuild. That rebuild will buy him five year's time.

Since I can't change teams, I said I'd be fine with the five year wait time then the Verbeekening happened at the 2022 TDL. Surprisingly, I was one of the few whose rebuild time was reset for a five-year wait. It's been hilarious reading for the past three years of posters wanting Verbeek do something big to make the playoffs in year 1 of the reset rebuild, year 2 of the RR, and year 3 of the RR (current season).

Since Verbeek's hiring, I have come to question his pro scouting ability. None of his veteran forward acquisitions are top-6 quality. Most of his defensive acquisitions have been third pairing playing in higher roles for us in Klingberg, Kulikov, Gudas, Lyubushkin, and Dumo. Trouba is playiing 2nd pairing. Our two best players are RW Terry (age 27) and LD LaCombe (just turned 24). We're relying on the older kids to be teaching the younger kids while our vets are placeholders. Our vets aren't talented enough carry the youths on their backs.

The exception is in net b/c Dostal has been under Ducks' coaching (Sudsie) watchful eye since COVID season, 2019-20. We have had goalies ahead of Dostal so as to not rush him to the NHL with backups Ryan Miller and Anthony Stolarz, in addition to starter Gibby. I guess Verbeek couldn't keep the tradition of having a good third goalie in tow in case of injuries. G Dansk was Verbeek's choice.

Anyhow, Cronin was hands off in the final 20 games or so of last season. That's when LaCombe's game really took off (I've shared these stats before). It didn't hurt our development without Cronin hounding the team. Though, I don't think Verbeek will fire Cronin in-season. Cronin is Verbeek's avatar on the bench. Verbeek's answer to getting to the playoffs is for our kids to get bigger physically, but that will take years to happen. That means the skills dept isn't a priority and the kids have to develop that on their own time. Cronin did say that Mac is a third liner with offensive abilities.

I dunno how, but Mac found his way on the side of the net on a PP and sniped in a bad angle shot. Mac hasn't been in that situation since Eakins was head coach. When Mac finally scored that bad angle shot, I said out loud, "Finally! We're putting Mac's big shot back to use." What a shame that under Cronin, Mac's big shot has been purposely muted.