Speculation: 2020-21 Management/Coach/Owner Discussion

[The Mighty Duck Man]

Isn’t Beauch working with Marchant in some capacity in player development? I don’t know if it’s a career path he would choose, but as far as intellect and temperament, he strikes me as someone who could be successful in a front office role.

I'm not sure, I could see that. He'd be a ways away, though, if he's just starting some FO stuff now.

 

[la patineuse]

Ownership has to consider cleaning house. They can't be happy with how our young players are developing

I like the Samuelis as owners because they are local and have heavily invested in growing hockey at the grassroots level and added additional roller/ice sheets in So Cal, but I am not so certain they get involved with the Ducks hockey operations.

 

[Spazkat]

Its the Athletic (so paywall) but in a GM survey, BM voted GM most unreasonable to deal with lol

The NHL Agent Poll: Agents have their say on GMs, Gary...

 

[Masch78]

"GMBM is the worst. He hates agents in general" :-D

I'll take that as a good thing. Most of the comments are nothing special. Hardball guys.

 

[la patineuse]

Murray can kick rocks. This is the third year in a row he's publicly blamed the players for the Ducks season. These are teams he builds every year and the coaching staff he hires and he never takes responsibility. It's always the players.

 

[TopShelfWaterBottle]

Ya in tired of being lied to by BM he’s been doing it for years

 

[Masch78]

Murray can kick rocks. This is the third year in a row he's publicly blamed the players for the Ducks season. These are teams he builds every year and the coaching staff he hires and he never takes responsibility. It's always the players.

What are you referring to?

 

[MilesNewton]

Its the Athletic (so paywall) but in a GM survey, BM voted GM most unreasonable to deal with lol

The NHL Agent Poll: Agents have their say on GMs, Gary...

Have to agree this looks pretty accurate!

 

[la patineuse]

What are you referring to?

It's in this thread on the trade rumors board (the first post)

TSN: - Ducks listening on everyone.

Pierre LeBrun said the Ducks are essentially listening on everyone, but they're not giving players away and that a deal is more likely to be done in the off season.

Bob Murray is disappointed in how the team has played and he's mostly disappointed in their players in their mid 20s.

 

[FiveHoleTickler]

It's in this thread on the trade rumors board (the first post)

TSN: - Ducks listening on everyone.

Bob Murray is disappointed in how the team has played and he's mostly disappointed in their players in their mid 20s

He said that last year while Randy was still coach. That post is conflating those two sentences. Unreliable.

 

[rlstine]

Since it looks like this year is over I thought now is probably a good time to assess Eakins' first year as coach (also a nice distraction from the global pandemic and subsequent economic collapse).

Anyways, I know he didn't have much to work with but the returns on the first year are not great. Special teams is usually a pretty good metric of coaching impact and right now our PP is ranked 30th and our PK is 26th. Maybe he should get a pass on the PP since we have such an obvious lack of scoring talent, but I don't think there's any excuse for our PK to be so bad. Gibson alone should buoy that number to a respectable level. If Edmonton can kill penalties at an 84% rate, I don't see any excuse for ours to be so bad.

Having said that it's also hard to pinpoint any glaring mistakes he's made. The ice time is generally spread out pretty evenly and there's no one player that gets a ton of ice time they don't deserve (like a Bieksa). 5 on 5 results are below average but not terrible. I'm not going to get into criticizing systems or set plays or any of that since I'll concede that Eakins knows 10,000X more about hockey than I ever will.

He definitely didn't have a lot to work with. Of the d-men he's had, you could make a pretty good argument that none of Holzer, Irwin, Hakanpaa, Guhle, Larsson, or Del Zotto should even be in the NHL (at least on a contending team, and I know some of those guys have looked fine for us). Of the forwards he had, Getzlaf has clearly slowed down, who knows what happened to Rakell, and the rest are solid players who lack high-end offensive skill.

The most contentious issue with Eakins is the lack of development of the younger players. I'm not as down on them as some here are, but the lack of tangible results is a bit discouraging. Still, they're all pretty young and some have shown signs of improvement as the season's gone along. Terry in particular I thought looked great before he got hurt the last time. Jones' stats aren't great but I love watching him play and he has flashes of skill every once in a while.

Maybe my biggest problem with Eakins, and I know this might be controversial, is that I think he might be nuts. He just always has this very insane look in his eye and his manner of speaking is very strange. His Twitter profile picture is bizarre (why does an NHL coach even have an official Twitter account?), and the fact that he keeps a Navy seal around who travels with the team is equally bizarre. Just something to keep an eye on going forward.

Stay safe everyone.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Maybe my biggest problem with Eakins, and I know this might be controversial, is that I think he might be nuts. He just always has this very insane look in his eye and his manner of speaking is very strange. His Twitter profile picture is bizarre (why does an NHL coach even have an official Twitter account?), and the fact that he keeps a Navy seal around who travels with the team is equally bizarre. Just something to keep an eye on going forward.

Not so much controversial as clownish and embarrassing.

 

[dracom]

Maybe my biggest problem with Eakins, and I know this might be controversial, is that I think he might be nuts. He just always has this very insane look in his eye and his manner of speaking is very strange. His Twitter profile picture is bizarre (why does an NHL coach even have an official Twitter account?), and the fact that he keeps a Navy seal around who travels with the team is equally bizarre. Just something to keep an eye on going forward.

This certainly is controversial, mostly because it makes zero sense. You're accusing him of being nuts because his eyes look kinda odd? Zero idea on what you mean about his manner of speech. His twitter profile is literally just a picture of him, why is that bizarre? Why can't a nhl coach have a twitter profile? I've never heard of the navy seal thing, but why does that even matter on.

None of that stuff is anything to "keep an eye on." It's just you be incredibly judgy.

 

[mightyquack]

Whats wrong with an NHL coach having a twitter account? He's a normal person, and perhaps just enjoys social media? Nothing wrong with that. Very weird that your biggest problem with a coach isn't anything to do with his coaching, but rather his facial reactions and speech, along with the fact he dares to have a twitter account in 2020.

Let's hope people don't judge you based on how you talk or how your eyes look or the fact you have an HFBoards account.

 

[MilesNewton]

Since it looks like this year is over I thought now is probably a good time to assess Eakins' first year as coach (also a nice distraction from the global pandemic and subsequent economic collapse).

Anyways, I know he didn't have much to work with but the returns on the first year are not great. Special teams is usually a pretty good metric of coaching impact and right now our PP is ranked 30th and our PK is 26th. Maybe he should get a pass on the PP since we have such an obvious lack of scoring talent, but I don't think there's any excuse for our PK to be so bad. Gibson alone should buoy that number to a respectable level. If Edmonton can kill penalties at an 84% rate, I don't see any excuse for ours to be so bad.

Having said that it's also hard to pinpoint any glaring mistakes he's made. The ice time is generally spread out pretty evenly and there's no one player that gets a ton of ice time they don't deserve (like a Bieksa). 5 on 5 results are below average but not terrible. I'm not going to get into criticizing systems or set plays or any of that since I'll concede that Eakins knows 10,000X more about hockey than I ever will.

He definitely didn't have a lot to work with. Of the d-men he's had, you could make a pretty good argument that none of Holzer, Irwin, Hakanpaa, Guhle, Larsson, or Del Zotto should even be in the NHL (at least on a contending team, and I know some of those guys have looked fine for us). Of the forwards he had, Getzlaf has clearly slowed down, who knows what happened to Rakell, and the rest are solid players who lack high-end offensive skill.

The most contentious issue with Eakins is the lack of development of the younger players. I'm not as down on them as some here are, but the lack of tangible results is a bit discouraging. Still, they're all pretty young and some have shown signs of improvement as the season's gone along. Terry in particular I thought looked great before he got hurt the last time. Jones' stats aren't great but I love watching him play and he has flashes of skill every once in a while.

Maybe my biggest problem with Eakins, and I know this might be controversial, is that I think he might be nuts. He just always has this very insane look in his eye and his manner of speaking is very strange. His Twitter profile picture is bizarre (why does an NHL coach even have an official Twitter account?), and the fact that he keeps a Navy seal around who travels with the team is equally bizarre. Just something to keep an eye on going forward.

Stay safe everyone.

What is the point of the Navy seal? Is that just a rumor?

 

[WhatTheDuck]

The poster who is (or at least claims to be) a children's horror fiction writer, thinks that Eakins is nuts because he has twitter. Something to keep an eye on moving forward.

 

[Exit Dose]

They travel around with a Navy SEAL?

 

[Dr Johnny Fever]

I could be wrong but I believe the SEAL was brought on to help teach and create a teamwork/camaraderie. What his functions are during the season is hard to know. But in this day and age of trying to get a leg up on everybody it doesn't really sound that out of line, IMO.

 

[MMC]

Not an Eakins fan, but it certainly has nothing to do with me thinking he’s nuts or anything. That’s ludicrous.

 

[Exit Dose]

I could be wrong but I believe the SEAL was brought on to help teach and create a teamwork/camaraderie. What his functions are during the season is hard to know. But in this day and age of trying to get a leg up on everybody it doesn't really sound that out of line, IMO.

I mean, you're not wrong and I get where the thinking originates from, but I just think that happens to be from an exceptionally goofy place.

With that said, I don't think he should be fired for it by any means.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

I mean, you're not wrong and I get where the thinking originates from, but I just think that happens to be from an exceptionally goofy place.

With that said, I don't think he should be fired for it by any means.

Well here's his bio, he's a Ducks employee:
Leif Mollo Bio

I mean, it doesn't seem all that weird. It's not like there's a dude in a gilly suit stalking the team giving them object lessons or something. "Athlete wellbeing" seems like not a bad idea.

 

[ADHB]

Well here's his bio, he's a Ducks employee:
Leif Mollo Bio

I mean, it doesn't seem all that weird. It's not like there's a dude in a gilly suit stalking the team giving them object lessons or something. "Athlete wellbeing" seems like not a bad idea.

Thanks for the link. The original post about it, the guy made it seem like there was an active navy seal traveling with the team acting as some sort of drill sergeant or something.

 

[Exit Dose]

Well here's his bio, he's a Ducks employee:
Leif Mollo Bio

I mean, it doesn't seem all that weird. It's not like there's a dude in a gilly suit stalking the team giving them object lessons or something. "Athlete wellbeing" seems like not a bad idea.

Really depends on what athlete well being means. Why him and not someone with a hockey background?

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

Really depends on what athlete well being means. Why him and not someone with a hockey background?

Beats me. But it looks like he has a kid who plays or played hockey in the Ducks high school league, and here's Silf talking about him positively in an LA Times article from October:

Silfverberg credited Leif Mollo, a retired U.S. Navy captain who was hired as the team’s head of athlete well-being, with explaining there are different ways to lead. Silfverberg said he’s not comfortable standing up and addressing teammates during intermissions and he’d prefer to lead by example. “It’s an easy way to lead and it’s easier for guys to follow you if you play a lot and you do well,” he said.

 

[TheStuntman]

Samuelis' are great people. I'm sure most hockey people know about the Senators owner. Senators announce cuts; Ducks paying staff