Anaheim Ducks, coach Dallas Eakins part ways after 4th-straight losing season

Dallas Eakins will not be re-upped as coach of the Anaheim Ducks when his contract expires in the summer, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported on Friday.

Eakins’s Ducks ended their season on Thursday in fitting fashion by shipping 5 goals to the playoff-bound Los Angeles Kings. 

The Ducks have endured a nightmarish 2022-2023 season, and finish their first campaign without Ryan Getzlaff since 2005 as the league’s worst team. 

It does not take a metric deep dive to find out why; the sheepish Ducks defense struggled to an NHL-worst 4.08 GAA, gave up the most shots per game by almost 4, and killed a 31st-place 72.1 percent of power plays.

The offense was not anything to write home about either. Anaheim was second-worst in the NHL in goals (2.5 per game), shooting percentage (8.9%), and power play conversion (15.7%).

When the book closed on their season, the Ducks’ haplessness at either end found them the league’s most outscored team (-129) with 16 goals to spare. 

While Eakins cannot be held solely responsible for Anaheim’s woes, he has not exactly left the team in a better place than he found it; he took over just one season removed from a 6-season playoff streak and failed to finish over .500 during his time in Southern California.

Eakins’s successor could find worse casts for a team rebuild. As terrible teams go, the Ducks have some enviable assets: Trevor Zegras and Mason McTavish have each shown glimpses of star potential, Troy Terry is steadily improving and in the prime of his career, and veterans Adam Henrique and Cam Fowler have productive seasons left in them.

The job in Anaheim will become all the more enticing if the Ducks can land superstar prospect Connor Bedard from the Regina Pats; with the league’s lowest point total, they have a 25.5 percent chance of winning the number one draft pick.