The Anaheim Ducks made an interesting move last weekend as GM Pat Verbeek relieved head coach Greg Cronin of his head coaching duties with a year left to go.
Similar to what happened in Seattle last season with Dave Hakstol, the timing of the firing was odd. The Anaheim Ducks made a 21-point jump in the standings. Normally, a coach does not get fired after that kind of jump. However, it seems from Verbeek’s comments following the firing that a new voice was needed, and they wanted to change things up.
“I went through this process, as I always do, and I started to look at things. When we probably went out of the playoff picture, I started to really start to look at things closer, and obviously there were some concerns,” Verbeek said to the media. “And then as I got closer to the end of the season, all the assessments, is kind of when I really decided to make the change and decided that it was the right time to take this team in a different direction and with a different voice.”
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Though there was no drama off the ice, Verbeek can point to the power play and penalty kill, which mostly fall on the assistant or associate coaches. We all know the underlying issue. The players did not want to play for him. There are reports that he was too hard on them despite the success they had this season and the culture he brought to the team.
Again, nothing has been confirmed, but there was a sense that the players on this year’s team won in spite of Cronin, not because of him. And the one thing the Ducks had to decide was whether it was a potential superstar in Trevor Zegras or the head coach. Usually, the player wins that battle.
Though Verbeek did not give a ringing endorsement of Zegras following the announcement of Cronin’s departure.
“When players are in those circumstances, you take things year by year. I’m going to be watching to see how each of them performs and take in the whole course of the season to decide where we go,” Verbeek said. “They’re quality hockey players. We have a lot of quality hockey players in our system, so there’s going to be a lot of things that are going to happen and we’ll have to figure that out and assess that at the appropriate time.”
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We know the history of Verbeek and Zegras and the long contract dispute over signing a bridge deal two seasons ago. Plus there was talk of the Ducks moving him at the 2024 NHL Draft. So Zegras may not be a Pat Verbeek guy, as he sees Mason McTavish and Lukas Dostal as important pieces to the franchise moving forward.
“They’re very important players to our organization, and the hardest thing is going to be to figure out what the contracts look like. So we’re going to go through our due diligence,” Verbeek said. “Obviously we’ve got lots of time to work through this and the offseason’s just starting, and I’ve actually had conversations with both agents before the season had ended, so we’re just going to kind of pick up kind of where we had left off before. I spoke to two young players as well and they’re excited.”
One thing that did stand out is that Verbeek is admitting he will be aggressive this summer, similar to last summer. Could he move out John Gibson finally. Seems like his name has been out there for many years. But the big takeaway is he thinks the Ducks are ready to make the playoffs next year.
“I expect this to be very active and aggressive. I think I see this team at a point to where my expectation of this team is to make the playoffs next season,” Verbeek said. “I expect our group to take a step and so I’m going to be active and aggressive in making our team better.”
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The only issue with the latter is that the Pacific Division is very good. The top three teams will be Edmonton, Vegas, and Los Angeles. We are seeing what the Calgary Flames are doing. The San Jose Sharks are on the rise. Of course, the big unknown is the Seattle Kraken. Plus, the Central Division still has its group teams, and many people expect Nashville to be better. The playoffs are a stretch.
Anaheim will look to David Carle of the University of Denver as a potential fit for their next coach. He would be the right fit. Maybe a guy like Jeff Halpern, too. But the Ducks are trying to reshape their team.
The key is for the Anaheim Ducks is what is the vision or message, because right now it does not feel like they have one.
