A former Ducks head coach changed addresses yet again Monday and on Wednesday signs pointed to another one of their current defensemen doing the same this summer.
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Greg Cronin and former Ducks forward Václav Prospal were announced as additions to the overhauled St. Louis Blues staff under Jim Montgomery. Additionally, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman posited during a radio segment that, just a day after John Carlson was reportedly moving on from the Ducks, fellow veteran right defenseman Jacob Trouba will likely join him in the free-agent market.
“Carlson’s hitting the market, and it sounds like [Jacob] Trouba’s hitting the market too,” Friedman said during a radio segment.
Not only were Carlson and Trouba leaning toward departures, but team captain Radko Gudas is an unrestricted free agent, leaving the right side of the Ducks’ defense in flux if not disarray.
Meanwhile, the addition of Cronin to Montgomery’s crew was a stabilizing element for St. Louis, Montgomery said.
“Starting the staff out, once we got Greg in place, it really made the other dominoes fall,” Montgomery said.
He added: “Greg Cronin is an absolute home run, He can manage a lot of work and he can handle a lot of people.”
Cronin coached the Ducks for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, catapulting their total in the standings 21 points year-over-year, the biggest improvement in the West. He inherited a roster deep in the throes of a rebuild that was undermanned and underfinanced, with his clubs performing poorly on special teams and often territorially as well.
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In between his time in Anaheim and his hire in St. Louis, Cronin coached the American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild, a job he took much more to fuel his passion for coaching than for monetary reasons.
“I’m just grateful for the opportunity to take the lessons I learned in Anaheim and in Iowa and share them to support the players and coaches in St. Louis,” Cronin said via text.
Montgomery said he sought a coach with teaching skills – something he said Cronin displayed across nearly 40 years at every level from junior hockey to the NHL – and “a defensive mindset.” Montgomery had an experienced team in Boston, where he nearly brought Cronin aboard. Though he still has some vets in St. Louis, including former Ducks mainstay Cam Fowler, the roster is trending younger, meaning Cronin’s patience and persistence would be “something that was invaluable.”
“He started the infancy of the (U.S.) national (development) program that’s had the 16- and 17-year-olds that have gone to become so many great players like (Jack) Eichel, (Auston) Matthews, the Hughes brothers, all three of them went through there. Him and Jeff Jackson started that program, and that’s what I’m talking about, the teaching skills,” Montgomery said.
“Then he spent so many years in the American league as a head coach where he’s developed really good young players and made them valuable players for NHL teams, and as an assistant coach he’s done that,” Montgomery continued. “Most importantly, his experience in Anaheim, having worked with talented young players on a team that was in a complete rebuild and helping them find the habits and details that help players become not only good offensive players but excellent 200-foot players.”
Though they hadn’t worked together previously, Cronin and Montgomery have a longstanding camaraderie as part of the coaching fraternity. Cronin even coached Montgomery as a player at the University of Maine, much as he had coached his predecessor in Anaheim, Dallas Eakins, as an assistant with the New York Islanders.
“He’s worked with everybody, so I know I’m getting someone that really teaches,” Montgomery said.
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