The Anaheim Ducks have announced that they will be parting ways with head coach Greg Cronin on Saturday following two seasons behind the bench.
While a successor has not yet been named, the team evidently felt the need to move on from the 2nd year coach after missing the playoffs for the 7th straight year. Cronin helped the team take a sizeable step forward in 2024-25 amassing a 35-37-10 record, good for a 21 point improvement from the year prior.
While Anaheim made good progress defensively under the 61 year old’s tutelage, the team languished offensively, ranking 30th in the NHL the last two seasons. With budding young stars such as Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier, Mason McTavish and Trevor Zegras amongst others, management clearly felt the need to shake things up rather than bring Cronin back for the final year of his contract.
“I want to personally thank Greg for his tireless work and dedication to the team,” said General Manager Pat Verbeek. “He is responsible in many ways for the improvement we’ve seen from our young core. However, after several weeks of careful evaluation, I concluded we needed a change in direction and a new voice. This was an extremely difficult decision for me to make, but I felt it was necessary to continue our progress toward becoming a Stanley Cup contender that I know we can be.”
Overall, Cronin departs with a 62-87-15 record with Anaheim and leaves the team in a better place than when he inherited them. The Ducks farm system is about as deep as it comes amongst NHL clubs, with players such as Beckett Sennecke, and Alexandre Blais still waiting in the weeds, while blue liners Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov, and Olen Zellwegger are all 24 years old or younger in the NHL ranks.
Verbeek and the Ducks ownership group are expected to cast a wide net in search of their next bench boss as they hope to return to the postseason next year for the first time since 2017-18.
Photo: Doug Kerr. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.