Ducks Fire Head Coach

Despite some growth from the team, another poor season has forced the Anaheim Ducks to move on from their head coach.

As such, the organization announced that head coach Greg Cronin will not return for the 2025-26 season.

Cronin still had a year left on his contract with the Ducks, marking the first head coach firing of the 2025 offseason.

The 2024-25 season was Cronin’s second year with the Ducks and his first-ever opportunity as an NHL head coach. Over his two years behind the bench in Anaheim, Cronin recorded a 62-87-15 record.

“I want to personally thank Greg for his tireless work and dedication to the team,” general manager Pat Verbeek said. “He is responsible in many ways for the improvement we’ve seen from our young core. However, after several weeks of careful evaluation, I concluded we needed a change in direction and a new voice. This was an extremely difficult decision for me to make, but I felt it was necessary to continue our progress toward becoming a Stanley Cup contender that I know we can be.”

The Ducks improved from 59 to 80 standings points from 2023-24 to 2024-25, but that wasn’t enough to keep Cronin around for the duration of his contract.

Before becoming an NHL head coach, Cronin coached at the colligate level, leading the Maine Black Bears and Northeastern Huskies. Cronin went on to hold assistant jobs at the NHL level with the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders.

In 2018, Cronin took up a head coaching job with the American Hockey League’s Colorado Eagles.

Cronin has nearly 40 years of coaching experience under his belt at various levels of hockey and in different positions behind the bench. Depending on how the rest of the summer plays out with coaches across the NHL, Cronin could still be in consideration for another NHL-level job.