Eakins Return To The NHL Should Be Imminent

Photo: Fox Sports San Diego

By Julius Choi

The Anaheim Ducks finally pulled the plug on Randy Carlyle on Feb. 10, relieving him of his head coaching duties with just over 20 games left in the 2018-19 season.

Carlyle spent nearly 10 seasons behind the bench for the Anaheim franchise, becoming the team’s franchise leader in all-time wins by a coach with 384 wins in 736 games. In just his second year with the team, a Stanley Cup was brought to Anaheim in 2007. However, that moment is now 12 years old and Anaheim no longer holds the distinction as the only California team to win it all.

Along with the firing of Carlyle came the immediate announcement that GM Bob Murray will assume the interim head coach position to close out the rest of the season. Making it clear that the Ducks will leave that as an issue to be addressed in the offseason. But knowing a regime change is needed, many are left to wonder who will be brought in to turn around the fortunes of a team that has just won five games in the past three months.

While Murray can look around the league and see if he can entice the likes of Joe Quenneville or Rikard Gronberg to come to Orange County, he would be overlooking someone who has been paying his dues in the minor leagues for the last four year.

That would be Dallas Eakins, who was last seen behind an NHL bench in 2015 for the Edmonton Oilers.

He has been the first and only head coach for the Anaheim Ducks’ AHL affiliate San Diego Gulls since its rebirth in 2015-16. While onlookers may be quick to dismiss him when seeing that the Oilers finished in third to last place two seasons in a row during his 1 ½ seasons as a rookie professional hockey coach, Eakins has proven that it was the system that failed him and not the other way around.

One should look no further than the product that the Oilers were putting on the ice for a good example. During Eakins’ rookie season as an NHL coach in 2013-14, the three-headed monster that was the goaltending tandem sunk Edmonton. Devan Dubnyk, Ilya Bryzgalov, and Ben Scrivens contributed to the team’s league-worst 3.26 goals allowed per game. Dubnyk’s .894 save percentage was ranked 46th in the league which prompted him to be traded to Nashville after just playing 32 games. He suited up for the Predators twice before being sent down for eight games with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.

It also doesn’t help when only four players reach the 50-point mark in a given season. While good goaltending isn’t the be-all and end-all, it certainly can hide a lot of a franchise’s problems.  Look no further than this year’s edition of the Anaheim Ducks where John Gibson single-handedly kept the team in games they shouldn’t be in and stopped 35 or more shots faced in 12 games this season. Gibson has played in 46 of Anaheim 58 games this season and despite currently residing on the IR, he has still not reached the prime of his career at the age of 25.

Eakins has played a key part in San Diego’s success on the ice as the Gulls have made the playoffs in two of the first three seasons and are in the hunt for another playoff berth in 2018-19, with the high point of the season seeing them rattle off eight straight wins from Dec. 27, 2018, to Jan. 12, 2019. He has also earned the reputation as a player development guru as there are currently 15 players on NHL rosters after playing for Eakins in San Diego.

With Murray’s track record of loyalty, it makes too much sense for him to promote Eakins next season and be known as the guy that provides second chances.

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