Greg Cronin failed to find success in his two NHL seasons with the Anaheim Ducks, resulting in his firing after the 2024–25 campaign. The Ducks signed Joel Quenneville—who boasts three Stanley Cups on his résumé—to succeed Cronin, and the latter made a major admission about dealing with those emotions.
During Cronin’s second year in Anaheim, the Ducks managed to register their best season in seven years, finishing with 80 points and tying their record from the 2018-19 campaign.
However, the front office believed these signs of improvement weren’t enough and opted to move in a different direction. Out went Cronin, and in came Quenneville—whose extensive list of accolades speaks volumes yet does little to quiet the controversy surrounding his return to the NHL.
Quenneville is back in a head coaching role after a three-year suspension after the sexual assault case involving Brad Aldrich and Kyle Beach, when Coach Q was behind the Chicago Blackhawks’ bench in 2010.
Head coach Greg Cronin of the Anaheim Ducks looks on during round one of the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft at Bridgestone Arena on June 28, 2023 in Nashville, Tennessee.
As Cronin discovered he was let go to make way for the three-time Stanley Cup champion, he delivered an honest comment.
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“[Firing me] makes sense now, I thought,” Cronin said about being replaced with Quenneville, during an interview with The Athletic. “He’s an unbelievable Hall of Fame coach. I’m grateful I loved working here. [The young kids here] got a bright future.”
Hearing from Coach Q
Far from intending to saw the floor under Cronin in Anaheim, Quenneville reached out to him in what was a smooth change of guard behind the bench at Honda Center.
“He just said ‘Hey, I want to thank you.’ He was very gracious about it,” Cronin said about Quenneville’s message to him. “He said he was grateful about the opportunity because these players were all about to take off. And they are.”
New era
The Ducks feature the fifth-youngest lineup in the NHL, based on the average age of their players, and have no shortage of promising talents who are shaping up to be the next wave of stars in the league.
Head coach Joel Quenneville of the Florida Panthers watches from the bench during the second period of the NHL game against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena on February 25, 2020 in Glendale, Arizona.
However, they have fallen short of truly competing with the league’s top teams—a key reason behind the decision to hire a seasoned, championship-winning coach like Quenneville, despite the public outcry surrounding the move.
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“It’s time to take the step to becoming a perennial playoff contender and eventually a Stanley Cup contender,” Ducks owner Henry Samueli stated. “If we want to take that step, we really should bring in a coach that’s been there and done that. We felt comfortable that [Quenneville] could take us from the end of a rebuild to the beginning of a playoff era. We’ve been through that, we know what it’s like.”
Is Quenneville’s style effective nowadays?
Quenneville has been there and done that—not once, but three times with the Blackhawks. However, there are reasons to be concerned as Coach Q hasn’t had any success in the Playoffs since his last Stanley Cup run during the 2014-15 season.
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Following the Hawks’ championship in 2015, Quenneville has made the postseason in four of the six full seasons he coached, yet he didn’t win a single playoff round in each of those trips. Perhaps Quenneville’s magic has faded, but the Ducks are more than willing to take that risk as they sign the active head coach with the most Stanley Cup wins in the NHL.
