Ducks To Announce Eakins As New Coach
Ian Gooding
2019-06-16
The Anaheim Ducks are set to announce Dallas Eakins as their new head coach on Monday, as per Eric Stephens of The Athletic.
Dallas Eakins will get his second chance to succeed as an NHL head coach as the Ducks will formally introduce him on Monday. We're having a roundtable discussion on him over the course of today.
— Eric Stephens (@icemancometh) June 16, 2019
Eakins has served as the coach of the Ducks’ AHL affiliate in San Diego for the past four seasons, although he is probably better remembered as the coach of the Edmonton Oilers before that. Although Eakins was unable to turn the Oilers around in his brief (113 game) tenure, he has a track record of success in the AHL, both with the San Diego Gulls and the Toronto Marlies before that.
Eakins seems to be the right type of coach for the Ducks’ rebuild. Promoting a coach from the AHL affiliate seems to be an effective method of recruitment. In addition, the fact that Ducks plan to either trade or buyout Corey Perry suggests they are about to embrace a youth movement, something that would have been difficult under a more old-school coach such as Randy Carlyle.
Expect youngsters like Troy Terry, Max Jones, Sam Steel, Max Comtois, and Josh Mahura to receive plenty of opportunity under Eakins, who is already familiar with them. Steel, Terry, and Jones were all recalled shortly after Carlyle was let go and GM Bob Murray was auditing the roster from behind the bench. It would be surprising if any of those three in particular were not on the big league roster to start the season.
Players this helps: The prospects listed above
Players this hurts: No one in particular
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