Greg Cronin was fired as coach of the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
No replacement was named.
Cronin was in his second season with the Ducks, replacing Dallas Eakins on June 4, 2023.
The Ducks (35-37-10) failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. They were sixth in the Pacific Division and finished 16 points behind the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card from the Western Conference.
Anaheim was eliminated when it lost 4-1 to the Calgary Flames on April 3.
"Today was a very tough day for this to happen,” Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said Saturday, “and I think Greg was responsible, in many ways, for the improvement of this team, when we look at accountability, you look at relevance. He brought this organization back, laying a solid foundation for all our young players and even our veterans, which has been very important."
Anaheim finished with 80 points this season, a 21-point improvement from 2023-24.
"In the end, it really wasn't about wins and losses,” Verbeek said. “I think when I talked about the concerns, some of those were things that, in my opinion, could not be overcome with whatever measuring stick you wanted to apply to it. So, with that, and with my experience as a player and being a manager, I thought at this time it was the right time to make the change and for our team to move forward."
Verbeek said he “didn’t look at” Anaheim’s power play (11.8 percent; 32nd in the NHL this season) and penalty kill (74.2 percent; 29th) as factors in the decision to fire Cronin, and that there were other reasons he shared with the coach that he wanted to remain private.
As for Cronin’s reaction to getting the news, Verbeek said, "I would say he was completely shocked, which is probably normal from his perspective. That's why this was very difficult and probably didn't make a lot of sense to him. Maybe at some point I'll be able to dive in with him deeper than in some of the conversations we had today."
Cronin was 62-87-15 with the Ducks, his first job in the NHL as a head coach. He joined the organization after five seasons coaching Colorado of the American Hockey League. He also guided the New York Islanders' AHL affiliate in Bridgeport from 2003-05. He is the seventh NHL coach fired this season, joining Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins on Nov. 19), Drew Bannister (Blues, Nov. 24), Luke Richardson (Chicago Blackhawks, Dec. 5), Derek Lalonde (Detroit Red Wings, Dec. 26), John Tortorella (Philadelphia Flyers, March 27) and Peter Laviolette (New York Rangers, April 19).
