Thanks for posting this. Great interview. Couple things that stood out to me:
Eakins refers to his time with Murray at the helm as "a bit of a grey area" in terms of team direction (i.e. are we competing or rebuilding?) and once Verbeek came in the direction was clear. This really confirms what some of us have long speculated about with the direction (or lack thereof) of the team under Murray - at least during Eakins' tenure.
Eakins also recalls the reasoning behind moving Montour was because he'd cost too much money for us to keep him. It's been argued on here that the motive for the trade was initiating a rebuild. I never bought that argument and now I think it's pretty clear it doesn't hold any water.
Some stuff about Gibson that people will no doubt read too much into. Eakins views him like a son and says all he wants to do is win - win no matter what, got money on my mind, I can never get enough. Ok I added that last part.
Eakins thinks Z is wildly misunderstood. He says a lot of what Zegras is going through is what Terry went though and that he's confident Z will come out on the other side just like Terry has. Says he just needs his reps - "literally."
Verbeek did cite when he was hired that
the next steps were to be contenders. Then we went full rebuild.
Monty had that arbitration thing that Murray doesn't like, apparently. Eakins wasn't the head coach of the Ducks when that happened. Eakins was the Gulls head coach. Eakins doesn't have the full story. Murray took over coaching duties 3/4ths through the 2018-19 season and made his decision.
As for "gray area", the rebuild was a slow rebuild compared to Verbeek blowing up the team. We didn't try adding top talent, but we were ushering the youth, as Eakins identified.
2018-19: Finished with 8th worst record. First time not in the playoffs. Added an extra 1st rd pick.
2019-20: Finished with 5th worst record. Added an extra 1st rd pick.
2020-21: Finished with 2nd worst record.
2021-22: Eakins said the Ducks were at the top of the Pacific when Verbeek got hired. We finished with the 10th worst record as Verbeek blew up the team at the TDL.
2022-23: Finished with the 2nd worst record.
The trajectory was an obvious rebuild since we weren't making hockey trades, but trades for picks & prospects and we weren't trying to sign high-end players during that time. 2021-22 was another development season, but so many good things happened at the same time: Terry finally blossomed, Zegras was an instant superstar, and everyone started off healthy. We still had no depth.
But hey, I guess going from Playoffs, to 8th worst record, to 5th worst record, and to 2nd worst record doesn't mean "rebuild" at all.
