Why the Ducks fired Greg Cronin

After two seasons on the job, Anaheim Ducks head coach Greg Cronin was fired Saturday. The news came after the Ducks wrapped up the 2024-25 season with a 35-37-10 showing and 16 points back of the second wildcard spot in the Western Conference.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed what led to the coach’s dismissal.

Tyler Yaremchuk: What about out in Anaheim? They took a big, big jump in the standings, but it didn’t result in a playoff appearance and that means Cronin is out as the head coach. Life ain’t fair, but does this feel fair to Cronin after taking a big jump, or do you think they need a new voice there?

Frank Seravalli: It’s not often that a coach gets fired after a 21-point improvement in the standings. However, Cronin should have been fired last year. The way that he interacted with players, I believe, was unacceptable. I believe he was warned of his behavior at that moment in time. I think, when you look forward to this year, you can see an improvement in the standings, but I feel like so much of that success came on the back of Lukas Dostal, and I don’t know that it was any sort of coaching improvement. That, plus some interactions, I think left a lot of people feeling uneasy and they kind of got to a point where they had to make a change.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Pat Verbeek was also talking about how he has to get aggressive this summer as well because they want to be a playoff team next year. A 21-point improvement is great, but I would argue that going from a basement dweller to a middle-of-the-pack team is the easy jump to make. This next leap, to try to get into the top eight, that is a much, much more difficult jump for a team to make.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: