Why Ducks may be more desirable than Rangers for head coaches

The first two NHL head-coach openings of the off-season couldn’t belong to teams ending on more different notes.

For the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks, their next coach will be tasked with snapping a seven-year playoff drought with a cast of up-and-coming talent. Meanwhile, the eventual New York Rangers hire will look to correct course after a disappointing season saw the Blueshirts on the outside of the post-season picture for only the fourth time since 2010.

During Monday’s edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman discussed both openings at length, diving into the optics of each job and what the general managers in both situations may prefer in potential replacements.

Starting with the Ducks, who parted ways with Greg Cronin on Saturday, Friedman said that general manager Pat Verbeek made the move with the intention of pushing his team into the playoffs by next season.

“This is going to be a big summer for Anaheim, and I think that’s something that factored into (Verbeek’s) decision,” Friedman said. “There’s a couple of things here. I did think that Pat Verbeek was going to talk to his players before he made any decision. And No. 2, I do believe that a lot of Verbeek’s thought process into this was: ‘If we are going to make the playoffs next year… will we get it done under this head coach or do I need to go elsewhere?’”

Cronin, 61, had served as the bench boss in Anaheim since the start of the 2023-24 season. He totalled a 62-87-15 record over his two seasons with the Ducks, and helped the club take a 21-point jump year over year.

That improvement, with the sixth-youngest roster in the NHL, is something that may have the Ducks job sitting atop the list of most desirable destinations for potential candidates.

“Of all the jobs that are going to be open, the sneaky one in terms of interest, I think is going to be this one,” Friedman said. “I think there’s a lot of coaches out there who are going to look at the Ducks and say, ‘That is a team on the upswing.’ They like their talent, they like their young players they have there. They’ve got a lot of them.”

Up front, the Ducks had five 20-goal scorers this season, including 22-year-old Mason McTavish, 20-year-old Leo Carlsson and 21-year-old Cutter Gauthier. Anaheim also received significant contributions from sub-25-year-olds Jackson LaCombe, Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov on the blue line.

There was even some hope in net beyond John Gibson, as 24-year-old goaltender Lukáš Dostál posted a .903 save percentage and 3.10 goals against average over 54 games this season.

“The thing, too, there is they have a lot of cap room to do things, and if they can’t necessarily do it in free agency…, they have the flexibility with their young players, if they want to make trades, they are going to have pieces that people are going to want to make those moves,” Friedman continued.

Meanwhile, in New York, a spot on the bench at Madison Square Garden may not be as appealing to coaches seeking employment with an NHL club.

“People say, ‘Nobody’s going to want the Rangers job.’ I understand why coaches might be wary after everything that’s happened, and I think they’re going to be wary about what’s going to happen with the roster,” Friedman said.

“The one thing that has to happen with the Rangers this off-season is they have to set a tone that whoever comes back next year, you gotta be happy.

“Look, this was a hard year. If I was in charge, I would be going to everyone, ‘If you’re not happy here, tell me now, I’ll get you out of here.’ Because, for the beginning of next year, a new tone has to be set. So, I think a new coach is going to want to know that. To know who’s happy here and who isn’t.”

Despite some of that wariness over the long-term future in New York, Friedman ultimately pushed back on the concept that the Rangers might have trouble finding someone to take the job, calling the idea “crazy.”

Whoever is tapped to take the Rangers reins will become the franchise’s fourth head coach in the last six seasons, following in the footsteps of David Quinn, Gerard Gallant and Peter Laviolette — the latter of whom was dismissed on Saturday, just one season removed from a Presidents’ Trophy-winning season.

Following the firing of Laviolette, New York general manager Chris Drury told reporters that his eyes are “wide open” in finding a new coach and that he’s not opposed to hiring a first-time coach as a replacement.

“I’m really curious to see where this is going to go,” Friedman said. “The fact that he said first-time head coach, that says to me that they’re going to take at least a look at David Carle and gauge his interest. That they’re going to want to talk to him and see if he’s interested in them.”

Carle has been the head coach at the University of Denver since 2018, guiding the program to NCAA titles in 2022 and 2024.

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