Dallas Eakins becomes the Anaheim Duck’s newest head coach. He succeeds Randy Carlyle, who was fired in February.
When the Anaheim Ducks fired Randy Carlyle mid-season, general manager Bob Murray stepped in with the interim head coaching duties. With the off-season firmly in swing, the Ducks have finally made their choice.
The Ducks announced Dallas Eakins as the team’s new head coach on Monday morning. Frank Seravalli of TSN previously reported all other candidates the Ducks had interviewed about the position had been told they had not received the position.
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Eakins is receiving an internal promotion, as he was previously head of the Ducks AHL affiliate the San Diego Gulls. Under Eakins, the Gulls have had tremendous success, being one of the AHL’s top teams including a trip to the Western Conference final this past season. Just as impressively, they have been on the AHL’s more popular teams in terms of fan and community support.
Eakins comes with a lengthy resume of coaching experience, including the one blemish to his credit as a former head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers hired Eakins when he was the head coach of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies in 2013 in hopes he would turn the Oilers around.
He was one of many head coaching victims the Oilers persuaded to help them lead their team back to success. Unfortunately for Edmonton, Eakins posted a record of 36-63-14 before being fired in December of 2014.
Since taking over in 2015 Eakins tenure with Anaheim’s top development team has been much more successful, and with the organization seemingly moving away from the old guard of the likes of Corey Perry and toward a rebuild, Eakins was the logical choice.
Most of the players he coached and molded in San Diego will be on his roster in Anaheim, making the transition and rebuilding process easier. For Eakins, that means he also gets to stay in Southern California and maintain familiarity with both the area, the organization, and its fan base.
The move comes after the Ducks most disappointing season in recent memory. Although they were in the playoff mix for a good part of the season, a streak that saw them go winless in 19 of 21 games lead to Carlyle’s firing and a swan dive in the standings.
A struggling Ducks squad contributed to the overall weakness of the Western Conference this past year, and with the Ducks seemingly headed for a rebuild, this next year might not see them rebound as much as Ducks fans would hope.
Carlyle had returned to be the Ducks head coach for a second time, previously being the bench boss that led them to the 2007 Stanley Cup championship. Ever since then, the team and organization have held onto the memory of 2007 and struggled to move on. Rebuilding is a daunting task but there’s no question that Dallas Eakins is the right man for the job.