As the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs begin Saturday, so do the off-season NHL coaching changes for the teams that didn’t reach the post-season.

The Anaheim Ducks and New York Rangers were first out of the gate, announcing that Greg Cronin and Peter Laviolette had been relieved of their duties.

Both Massachusetts natives with long histories in the game, Cronin and Laviolette had been hired for those positions eight days apart, in June of 2023.

In two seasons on Broadway, Laviolette amassed a record of 94-59-11 for 199 points over 164 games.

His first year was a success after he took over from Gerard Gallant: he guided the Rangers to a seven-point improvement in the standings, the Presidents’ Trophy as the top regular-season team and three rounds of playoffs before losing to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final.

The team also started strong in 2024-25, opening with a 12-4-1 record. But by late November, as word trickled out that GM Chris Drury had made franchise cornerstones Jacob Trouba and Chris Kreider available for trade, the team started to swoon and never recovered.

By season’s end, the Rangers had fallen by 29 points to a record of 39-36-7, their worst finish by points percentage since David Quinn’s first year behind the bench in 2018-19. Trouba was traded to the Ducks in December and the Rangers made another big deal at the end of January when they re-acquired center J.T. Miller, who had been a first-round pick by the team back in 2011.

In the end, they finished six points out of a playoff spot.

Associate coach Phil Housley was also let go after two seasons, while assistants Dan Muse and Michael Peca will have the opportunity to interview with the new hire.

“After finishing with the best regular season record in the NHL a year ago and making a trip to the Eastern Conference Final, we came into this season with high expectations for ourselves,” said Drury in a statement on Saturday. “Quite simply, we failed to meet those expectations. We must all do better – myself included. As we head into next season and beyond, I felt that a change was necessary in order to give us the best chance to achieve our goals as an organization. Our search for a new head coach will begin immediately.”

Drury’s most pressing off-season business will be to come to terms on a new contract with defenseman K’Andre Miller, who’s a 25-year-old restricted free agent with arbitration rights. It’s believed that Kreider, who has two years remaining on his contract, is still available for trade, and other deals could also be on the table.

Laviolette had one year remaining on his contract, per ESPN. Before the Rangers, he had coached the New York Islanders, Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia Flyers, Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals. At 1,594 games, he ranks ninth all-time in NHL games coaches, and his 846 wins rank him seventh.

Improving Ducks Seek New Voice

By contrast, Greg Cronin’s two-year tenure with the Ducks was his first NHL head-coaching job. He finishes with a record of 62-87-15 for 139 points in 164 games.

The rebuilding Ducks had missed the playoffs for five seasons when Cronin was hired, but didn’t show meaningful improvement in his first year. They gained just one point in the standings, and there were whispers that players were chafing at Cronin’s hard-nosed approach to his job.

This season, there was improvement. The Ducks hovered around .500 for most of the year before a late swoon dropped them to 35-37-10 for 80 points — 21 better than one season earlier but still 16 out of a playoff spot. The Ducks finished with five 20-goal scorers including top prospects Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson and Mason McTavish. But their top scorer, Troy Terry, led the team with just 55 points.

“I want to personally thank Greg for his tireless work and dedication to the team,” said Ducks GM Pat Verbeek in his statement. “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.”

According to Pierre LeBrun of TSN, Cronin also had one year remaining on his deal.

Expect to see more NHL coaching changes in the days and weeks to come. By the end of last summer, eight new coaches had been hired.