Anaheim Ducks Making Moves Behind the Bench and in the Front Office

Over the past few days, the Anaheim Ducks have announced a few important hires, a contract extension, and a promotion.

Things are starting to heat up within the Anaheim Ducks organization and it won’t be long until things come to a rapid boil. In the past two days, the Anaheim Ducks have announced two very important hires. Dallas Eakins as Head Coach and Jeremy Bettle as Director of High Performance. Today, they also announced the news of a contract extension for David McNab and a promotion for Dave Nonis.

Dallas Eakins— Head Coach of the Anaheim Ducks

After months of waiting, Bob Murray announced what we had all known long before Randy Carlyle was ever officially relieved of his coaching duties. Dallas Eakins was the next head coach of the Anaheim Ducks franchise. Signed to a 3-year deal, Eakins will be a breath of fresh air to a team who’s style of hockey has been stuck in the “stone ages.”

The negative environment generated from Carlyle’s tendency to be hard-nosed and stubborn will now be eradicated and replaced with a coach who is genuinely interested in his players and their success above all else. He is strategic, innovative, incredibly wise, and an all-around great human being.

His time with the Edmonton Oilers is certainly a black mark on his otherwise decent resume. Nevertheless, the tactics he used weren’t necessarily ones that work to turn a team around, and he has been relentless in making sure everyone knows that he has learned from his mistakes. Bob Murray has confidence in him, the Samueli’s are big fans, and his four-year tenure with the San Diego Gulls speaks for itself.

Dr. Jeremy Bettle— Anaheim Ducks Director of High Performance

Another hire that we have known about long before the official announcement is Dr. Jeremy Bettle. The official news broke this morning that he has been hired as the Anaheim Ducks Director of High Performance. Going into the offseason, something that was blatantly obvious to both the fans and upper management was that something needed to be done to exterminate the injury bug.

Bettle has a long, and impressive, resume that instills hope in the Ducks organization, that he is their best option to work on and improve the team’s overall health. He worked for UC Santa Barbra as Director of Sports performance before joining the Brooklyn Nets organization as their Strength and Conditioning Coach and Director of Nutrition. Most recently, he spent four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs as their Director of Sports Science and Performance. 

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He has also held a position with his alma mater, Middle Tennesse State University, as their strength and conditioning coach. Bettle has also been involved with Rugby teams, including USA Rugby, where he served as their technical manager, and Viadana Rugby in Italy, where he acted as their speed development consultant.

During his time with the Anaheim Ducks organization, he will oversee strength and conditioning, injury prevention and rehabilitation, as well as several other aspects relating to the team’s health and wellness. This hire is an extremely important one, as it will aid in keeping the team healthy, on the ice, and with hopefully fewer injuries, it will offer more consistency to the lineup.

Dave Nonis— Anaheim Ducks Assistant General Manager

Dave Nonis joined the Anaheim Ducks staff in July of 2015 and has recently completed his third season as Consultant to the General Manager. As of this morning, however, he has earned himself a promotion and his title has been changed to Assistant General Manager.

Prior to joining the Anaheim Ducks, Nonis served as the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations and General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Vancouver Canucks organizations. He has also spent four seasons as the NHL’s Manager of Hockey Operations.

Although he has been a consultant to Bob Murray for the past three seasons, he has been a special assignments scout for the Anaheim Ducks as well. He doesn’t necessarily have the best track record, which has left some fans scratching their heads, but he has seemed to fit in well amongst Bob Murray and the rest of his staff.

David McNab— Anaheim Ducks Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations

David McNab has been with the Anaheim Ducks since the inception of the franchise. It doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere anytime soon either. It was announced this morning that the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations was just signed to a two-year contract extension.

The San Diego native has had quite the lucrative career with the National Hockey Leauge and has had been a very important part of the Anaheim Ducks organization. Over the years, he has been instrumental in drafting, scouting, and signing several players that have gone on to significantly impact the club. In 1995, he was promoted to Assistant General Manager and served in that position for 14 consecutive years until he was promoted to Senior Vice President of Hockey Operation sin 2008.

According to an article published on the Anaheim Ducks official NHL website, McNab’s duties will include “overseeing all aspects of player development, having expertise on the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and its relationship to the salary cap in the NHL, contract and arbitration negotiation, player evaluation and scouting.”

The offseason is about to get busy, especially for the Anaheim Ducks! Join the Pucks of a Feather team and give fellow fans the skinny on everything Bob Murray and the team are up to this summer.