It's kinda sad that many point to Eakins career and not realize he's been working with mostly a rebuild roster, again, which was Wood's point.
Talk about jumping up in win %...
Ducks | | | | | | |
---|
Season | Games | W | L | OL | Pts | Pt Share |
2020-21 | 56 | 17 | 30 | 9 | 43 | 38.4% |
| | | | | | |
2021-22 All Star Break | 48 | 23 | 16 | 9 | 55 | 57.3% |
2021-22 TDL | 62 | 27 | 25 | 10 | 64 | 51.6% |
2021-22 Complete | 82 | 31 | 37 | 14 | 76 | 46.3% |
| | | | | | |
2022-23 | 82 | 23 | 47 | 12 | 58 | 35.4% |
2023-24 | 82 | 27 | 50 | 5 | 59 | 36.0% |
There was the same roster group between 2020-21 and 2021-22 (Z and Drysdale had a 24-game stint in 2020-21). Difference was they were healthy to start the season. Verbeek took over the team at All-star break. There were no NHL additions made when Murray resigned. Between All-star break and the TDL, Manson missed 12 out of 14 games and no help was made until Sustr was put on the waiver wire days before Manson was traded.
When the TDL happened and Verbeek blew up the team, the team crashed going 4-12-4 to close out the season. From
the Athletic:
Now, who knows where this goes after this season? Eakins’ deal will be up. But at the very least, Verbeek wanted to take the time to further get to know his coach before making any decisions.
“It’s not fair … me coming in two, three months and then going with a new guy,” Verbeek said. “And in the sense that I just blew up the team (at the trade deadline). So I wanted to give him a chance.
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Cronin has been an NHL assistant coach for 12 years:
1998-2003 with NYI
2011-2014 with Toronto
2014-2018 with NYI
Cronin has been a head coach below the NHL for several years:
1995-16 Maine (NCAA)
2003-05 Bridgeport (AHL)
2005-11 Northeaster (NCAA)
2018-23 Colorado Eagles (AHL)
Cronin doesn't have a shortage of experience being a head coach nor an NHL assistant coach. None of this is extremely new to Cronin except it's being a head coach at the NHL level.
Eakins was given a shit roster by Verbeek in 2022-23 that left us without any defense, physicality, nor talent depth after Verbeek "blew up the team". Cronin was gifted with a load of talent offensively, defensively, physicality, and talent depth to have created a +38 goal differential from last season. Yet, we were only 1 point better.
Instead of comparing the two rosters and productions, we get "agenda-ists" that want to expand to Eakins' previous four seasons.
And when I bring up the 2021-22 season, they all, in unison, omit that season from their memories to continue to promote an agenda.
But it all comes back to roster quality and roster depth. Eakins was able to take a team with the 2nd worst record and put them into 3rd place in the Pacific at All-star break (without a GM between Nov and Feb) because the roster was mostly healthy, but still lacked depth due to it being year 3 of the Murray rebuild. And while Verbeek sat on his hands between All-star break and the TDL, where Manson missed 12 out of 14 games, the Ducks were still only
4 points from 3rd place in the Pacific.
Last year: Shit roster in = shit record out (58 pts)
This year: Vastly improve roster in, +38 GD improvement = shit record out (59 pts)
I'll repeat this, Cronin isn't going anywhere. He'll be here next season b/c he Verbeek's chosen.
Yet, Eakins was let go the moment the season ended without any time for review. It's silent and safe since the season ended for Cronin despite a shittier outing.