.409
.306
.472
.384
.463
.354
Only stat that matters in sports…. Wins/losses. He’s never been in the playoffs. He’s a bad coach, his record shows that, and I’m not the one spinning rhetoric.
Sure, if you don't have context. Eakins has always been brought in with a rebuild team. With the Ducks, we intimately know it was a rebuild as we kept taking away more and more talent for a few seasons.
=== Let's play KelVarsen rules ===
Here's one for you. If you're only about end results without context. We drafted a defensemen in the first round.
D-1: -36 rating
D+0: -24 rating
Why in the hell would we draft a defenseman that can't defend? According to your microscopic angle, we never should have drafted this defenseman, let alone draft him in the first round.
That defenseman is
Shea Theodore. His pre-draft team rosters were terrible. His post draft teams accrued more talent.
D+1: +19
D+2: +17
Maybe roster construction is a significant part of improved play. Again, Eakins has always been involved with rebuilding teams. Rebuilding teams don't often win.
==========================
I'm good with the fuller version of Eakins. Never said he was the greatest. When given a better roster, then apparently he wins. Unfortunately, the rosters he's been given haven't been great, especially when we're sellers at the TDL.
Now here's the kicker. I have stated Eakins should be gone after the 2021-22 season b/c new GM's want their new head coaches. GM Verbeek didn't construct a worthwhile team for the 2022-23 season and brought Eakins back. The 2022-23 season was going to be abysmal before it even started, not because of Eakins, but because of roster construction. We had only one top-4D last year on our blueline. Verbeek didn't go out and grab a potential top-4D to replace the loss of Drysdale last year to help the team... like when Verbeek didn't help out the Ducks who were 3rd in the Pacific when he took over and discovered that Manson has just been put on IR. That's not on Eakins b/c Eakins does not control the roster. Whoever was gonna coach the team last year was purposely doomed to fail.
I see Eakins for what he did and didn't do. I am fine moving on from him. I was fine moving on from him last off-season. But I won't be purposely ignorant of what transpired under Eakins' watch, including what was beyond his control.
Eakins set a good foundation for the next coach. During the whole rebuild, no one quit (except for Comtois... Comtois quit). And when someone did quit, then Eakins left him a lifeline to redeem himself - which was Rico's situation. Eakins has been deploying pinching D-men with rotating forwards scheme, which is highlighted by Fowler had career production years in the past two seasons as well as Drysdale putting up 32 points in his rookie season.
With new HC Cronin, he's also utilizing that same offensive scheme of pinching D with rotating forwards, but with more X's and O's. The returning forwards should acclimate to Cronin's level of detail since the foundation has been laid down. With the defense, Cronin's has been given six new D-men that weren't here for most of last year, which includes Drysdale. Also, three of those defensemen with offensive instincts in LaCombe, Mintyukov, and Luneau.
The Red Wings were already in rebuild mode (2016-17) when Yzerman took over in 2019 and they're continuing that rebuild to this day. You're not gonna be a playoff team if you're in rebuild mode. Our rebuild and reset rebuild netted us top end prospects and players to eventually give the Ducks a more talented roster. Eakins has always been a rebuild coach; but for a brief moment when he had a talented roster, he had him in a playoff position.