Anaheim Ducks Require a Change in Team Culture and Identity

It wasn’t supposed to come to this. Looking back to the start of the season, there was little commentary from the Anaheim Ducks. Yet, the little that did emerge was in regard to a potential push towards the post-season.

Certainly, making the post-season is one step on the path to what many may assume is the eventual aim of all NHL teams. The Stanley Cup. One quote that stood out was from the then-newly signed Kevin Shattenkirk, who suggested to him that Bob Murray had believed he had been rebuilding the roster in the few years prior.

“What he expressed to me is he’s tired of this rebuilding situation. He wants to be in the playoffs next year, and he felt I was someone who would be part of that plan.” – Kevin Shattenkirk

For those watching along, it’s hard to compare the Anaheim  Ducks trading for players like David Backes, Danton Heinen, and Sonny Milano, while going out and signing over 30-year-old free agents like Derek Grant and Kodie Curran, with the rebuild put in place by the New York Rangers or the LA Kings.

In many ways, it was Bob Murray doing his usual business of attempting to acquire “reclamation project” players in their mid-20’s and some older players who he either already knew well or who he hoped would reignite their careers. It wasn’t so much of a rebuild as it was the Ducks doing the same thing they have done almost every year since Murray took over as the General Manager of the team.

 How to Create a Culture Shift

This leads us to one of the modern-day buzz words of “culture.” The culture of a place creates norms of what is acceptable behavior and what is not. A clear culture creates an environment in which each member is aware of how they should act, communicate, cooperate, resolve conflict, and so forth.

In and of itself, team culture will never stay entirely stagnant. As different people move in and out of any organization they bring their own personalities to the fore. Yet, even so, culture permeates the very fabric of a team, and even the newest of faces are somewhat brought into the fold. Whether the atmosphere is relaxed or tense, light-hearted or competitive, supportive of each other or indirect competition, that environment will shape the team and the direction they head in.

Take for example the Brooklyn Nets: Some five years ago, they were in a position in which they were the ugly duckling of the NBA, with no draft picks and aging roster and big luxury tax bills. Today they have a roster that many teams are surely envious of. Yet, it took them many twists and turns to get from then to now.

Initially, they fostered a culture of development, with that attitude of sacrificing the self for the good of the many. It’s a culture shift that many hockey teams would pay lip service to in the sense that blocking shots is considered to be sacrificing the body in order to achieve success for the team at that moment.

Four years after commencing this cultural shift, the Nets pivoted from a developmental culture to one built around winning. They still aim to develop their younger players and they still play hard for each other with as little ego as a team with three top-10 players in the league can muster.

Yet, the primary focus now is on winning championships. ESPN’s Power Rankings has them in the top spot in the league, with their championship window, not playoff window, but championship window, wide open for three more years.

Learning From Two Rebuilding Teams

Now for the Anaheim Ducks…

“This team has to create an identity. We don’t have one right now, and we’ve got to find one.” – Bob Murray upon hiring Dallas Eakins

The Ducks management team is probably a little too old school to buy into vernacular like “culture,” though General Manager Bob Murray has mentioned identity. If the identity of a team is to know what that team is and how it may be differentiated from others, then the culture is the underlying driving force for that identity.

One has to look at the Buffalo Sabres to see what is clearly a poor culture within the team. Their marquee player has a history of being a malcontent and has routinely thrown his coaches under the bus. More recently he’s been extremely outspoken about his treatment of a herniated disc in his neck.

He wants to undergo the surgical option, whereas the medical staff within the team have advised a conservative approach. It’s worth noting that ~90% of cervical herniations are treated conservatively. Perhaps Jack Eichel is in that other 10% and perhaps not.

The issue is that the player doesn’t trust the franchise and that he’s publically derided them. Outgoing players like Eric Staal and Taylor Hall have also spoken about how poor the internal framing of the Buffalo team is, since their trades out of town.

Typically speaking, as with all things sports, perception, whether legitimately true or not, will inevitably become reality. In most cases, winning teams have a good culture, and losing teams have a bad culture. Like the sun rises each morning, so the narrative goes with culture.

How does the Anaheim Ducks culture match with that of the Brooklyn Nets? How does their perceived rebuild compare to that of the New York Rangers? Both the Rangers and the Nets are in different places in their respective rebuilds, yet there are certain similarities that can be taken from both.

Management

Firstly, the Brooklyn Nets brought in a highly touted “new” manager in Sean Marks to construct an organization that would be a destination for free agents. As a young assistant manager with the highly successful San Antonio Spurs, it was hoped that he would bring youthful energy and a winning pedigree from his previous organization.

Already highly regarded for his work around the league, it was hoped that his fresh ideas would revitalize a franchise that had traded away half a decade of future first-round picks and was saddled with a monstrous salary cap and an aging underperforming roster. Since that time, Marks has turned the ugly stepchild of the NBA into a destination team and is still with the organization today as they trend forward.

The New York Rangers stayed with the General Manager they had brought into the team in 2015, yet who commenced a clear rebuild in 2018. From here they sought out a highly touted development coach in David Quinn, who, like him or not today, was an out-of-the-box, yet heralded hire at the time, for his work in the AHL and college hockey. Following on, they then brought in beloved former Ranger netminder (and broadcaster) to become the team president in 2019. Not long after the rebuild commenced in earnest.

“David brings a diverse and successful coaching resume that includes extensive work in developing young talent. I am confident he is an excellent fit for our team, and know he will work tirelessly with Glen, Jeff and our entire organization to execute our plan to build the next Rangers Stanley Cup contending team.” – James Dolan

There are some slight differences between the two teams in that the Nets brought in entirely new faces within the management team to inject fresh ideas into their organization, whereas the Rangers have played the middle somewhat, sticking with a known management group, even though they were relatively new to their roles within the team.

The Anaheim Ducks Need Fresh Ideas in the Front Office

The Ducks, conversely, have had the same management group for over a decade. General Manager Bob Murray was the Assistant General Manager in the Ducks 2007 Cup-winning team, then made the General Manager for what was an immediate “retool.”

Murray moved out fan favorites while leaning on the burgeoning talents of the young Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. He was kept through a purple patch of playoff appearances, and now, once again, looks to be overseeing another “retool.” Perhaps this third bite at the cherry will work better than his previous two.

“Much like my experience in Chicago as a General Manager, sometimes your first chance doesn’t go so good, you want to get back and try it again.” – Bob Murray

Other components of the Anaheim Ducks management group, such as the recently retired David McNabb, have been with the team for 28 years. Newly minted Assistant General Manager, Martin Madden, has also been with the Ducks a long time in his scouting roles.

Thus the question should be asked, “where are the fresh ideas coming from?” Bob Murray oversaw a “retool” that essentially relied upon the young superstars Getzlaf, Perry, and Bobby Ryan. There’s no doubt that he drafted well on defense, acquiring Cam Fowler and Hampus Lindholm through the draft at various stages.

Yet, a further question of “do the Ducks need to retool or rebuild in earnest?” should be asked. There are no young superstars on the roster for the Ducks to build around, aside from potentially the very young Trevor Zegras.

However, Bob Murray seems convinced that this is a roster that is capable of becoming a playoff team as it’s currently built. Is that the ideology that the Ducks should be pursuing at this point in time? what is their culture internally? What are they building towards? How are they building it?

As stated above, the moves the Anaheim Ducks have made are largely the same types of moves they’ve made each and every year, whether they’ve been in playoff contention or wallowing at the bottom of the standings.

What becomes notable is the differences between the teams mentioned. The Nets are in a position of power and thus their ownership has elected to keep the same management group. The Rangers, perhaps underachieved compared to their desires and ownership, made sweeping changes the moment the season was over.

Loyalty to “family” wasn’t a consideration, as they acted quickly to remove a beloved figure within the organization. What happens now is debatable, yet it can be said that the Rangers acted swiftly instead of sitting idly watching their “family” make mistakes they thought they could remedy.

It can certainly be said that Jeff Gorton’s track record isn’t dissimilar to Bob Murray’s. Both have made some great trades in their time and both have had some complete and utter misfires.

Despite anyone’s commentary, it’s very likely that both fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum when evaluating GMs. There are always some who are outstanding and always some who are utterly awful. Neither Gorton nor Murray fits into these categories.

Given the similarity of GMs, and that one team has opted to make changes, are we to believe that the Ducks culture is exactly where the owners want it to be and that it doesn’t need changing? At some point in the very near future, this is a question that ownership will need to ask themselves.

Coaching

With respect to the rebuilding efforts of the Nets and the Rangers, both teams brought in fresh-faced development coaches from outside the organization. Kenny Atkinson was a long-time assistant coach with a lot of hype from successfully developed players, whereas David Quinn was a highly successful collegiate coach with some stints within the AHL (and NHL system).

Both teams developed their players from the ground up, and either traded them away for established stars (Brooklyn) or signed established stars as free agents (New York). Nonetheless, the focus was on getting the right people for the right role, and to focus on developing their young players from the ground up. When the opportunity to strike for elite talent came, both teams struck hard.

Perhaps more pertinent, was once the team was deemed capable of transitioning from rebuilding and development into contending for a championship, changes were made. They were made fast. Both teams moved on from their coach. A similar process is found in big business. For the most part, the mindset for growing a company from the ground up is very different from the one required for an established business.

Within the resources sector, one group of people is used for constructing a project and another for operating it once it’s built. The Brooklyn Nets may no longer be allowed to be as smarmy as they once have been regarding the culture buzzword, but they perhaps were not wrong to make the moves they made.

Is Dallas Eakins the Right Coach for the Anaheim Ducks?

In comparison, two seasons ago the Ducks pivoted from a “win now” mentality to one that was perhaps a rebuilding one if looked at in the right light. At least they moved on from the coach at the time, Randy Carlyle, and brought Dallas Eakins from their affiliate AHL team into the NHL, to continue working with the young players he had been working with all along.

Perhaps the biggest point of contention between the Eakins and Quinn or Atkinson is that Eakins had both been involved with the Ducks for the previous four seasons (coaching their affiliate) and already had an NHL track record as a head coach. Within that track record, he obviously had a disastrous record with the Edmonton Oilers, with one of the worst defensive schemes in modern history and a reputation for ripping apart a dressing room.

When adding the very short and not-very-distinguished list of 45 coaches in NHL history who have coached in at least 82 games with a lower win percentage, the Eakins hire seems odd. That isn’t to say that winning is the same as player development, and indeed they can be at very opposite ends of the spectrum.

It’s just that if this was meant to be a playoff team this season, as per commentary from some sources within the Anaheim Ducks, then perhaps hiring a coach who has a track record of success would be more prudent.

On that front, with the San Diego Gulls team, Eakins had shown some team success, yet it can also be said that very few players who moved from his AHL team into the NHL looked like they had any idea of basic structures or play.

Consider how lost Nick Ritchie looked in his first season, and how he improved each year under Carlyle, before falling away again under Eakins. Consider how he looks now with another organization. Furthermore, all of the players under 25-years old took significant steps backward last year under his stewardship.

“This is just a natural progression for a guy who’s coached most of the guys on this team…. I said in the beginning I was going to take my time and make sure San Diego was finished playing (in the AHL postseason) before I started looking for a head coach. … There were a lot of good people I talked to. It was a good process for this organization to go through, but it just always came back to Dallas.” – Bob Murray

That’s not to say that Eakins hasn’t had his success. Troy Terry has taken some huge steps forward this season. Max Comtois as well looks to be a promising young player. It’s inherently difficult to improve while playing in the NHL, so these are noteable to consider. However, one step back for a single step forward won’t quite be enough on either the development or the competitive front.

Nonetheless, the question should be asked whether Eakins is the right coach for the Ducks. If the Ducks believe he is a strong developmental coach and is creating the right environment, then he should remain behind the bench for the time being. Creating too much change with young players is more likely to lead to confusion and poor play than steady consistency.

With that said I would query if Eakins is the right coach. Are the improvements in play from Terry and Comtois is enough to counterbalance a somewhat poor reputation regarding team (lockerroom culture) and a far longer list of underdeveloped players? At the very least there is a big divide between the Anaheim Ducks hiring a coach they already knew well to the Rangers and Nets seeking out fresh ideas from outside-the-box hires.

It feels like the two other teams made a concerted effort to change the way they were doing things, both in terms of processes and in terms of internal culture. They brought in new faces to bring in a new culture. The Ducks seem like they had one foot in and one foot out if the idea was to change their position.

On one hand, they moved on from Randy Carlyle who was brought in to attempt to squeeze the last little bit of talent out of an aging group, and moved to a coach they believed may be able to develop their younger players because he already knew them well. Yet, with bringing on the “new” hire of Dallas Eakins, all the Ducks really did was replicate what they had previously done with Randy Carlyle. Bring back a coach they already knew well.

In this light, it’s also worth noting that upon hiring Eakins, Bob Murray made some comments about shifting from an “old-school” style of “dump and chase” hockey that was played under both Randy Carlyle and Bruce Boudreau, to a more “modern” approach under the at-the-time new Eakins. Moving forward to today, the Anaheim Ducks have now had two seasons in which they’ve dumped the puck into a greater degree than they ever have before, including on the power play.

As the saying goes, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Once again, we’re left to determine whether the Anaheim Ducks internal culture is as management and ownership want it to be. Given the distinct lack of organizational shift, we can only assume that this Ducks team is precisely where it’s meant to be in the eyes of the owners.

Support Staff

Sean Marks Brooklyn Nets went out and put together a diverse range of hirings for their sports science department. Ex-Navy SEALs, former AFL strength and conditioning coaches, you name it, they were sought out. No rock was left unturned.

Part of the Nets’ development philosophy was to acquire unloved players or players who had dropped in the draft, not due to talent but to injury. Caris Levert was such a player for them. Hendrix Lapierre would be a hockey equivalent, to an extent at least. They planned to rebuild these players and create a strong core about them.

Fast forward a few years and Levert was traded away as part of the James Harden trade, and Kevin Durant was successfully rehabilitated from injury. This strong focus on sports science has helped them foster a culture that shows great care for their players. It has, in part, been a differentiating factor in them becoming a free agent destination.

Further even than that, they hired dedicated analytics people and even a capologist to manage the salary cap. While these professions had work to do with the on-court coaching staff, they shone brightly when Marks went to make trades.

They sourced unloved players who had strong metrics and effectively “stole” them for cheap. As a comparison, it would be like the Anaheim Ducks acquiring the less-loved Roope Hintz from the Dallas Stars.

In comparison, the Ducks did go out and source Dr. Jeremy Bettle from the Toronto Maple Leafs, and un-ironically, the Brooklyn Nets. By all accounts, he is a strong hire with a wealth of experience and a PhD in his field.

Altering the Culture and Advertising It

Conversely, to stories about the Anaheim Ducks rehabilitating injuries, we have multiple stories such as Jakob Silfverberg playing through a hip complaint for multiple years. Ryan Kesler was another. That isn’t to say that there was anything untoward about them playing at any point in time, nor that they absolutely should have had surgery beforehand.

It’s an appeal to authority, however, we can only trust the highly qualified people on the ground. Nonetheless, it’s not a good look when so many Anaheim Ducks are succumbing to long-term injury complaints.

That isn’t, however, an attack on oft-injured players, nor the staff on some of those players. The strongest predictor of future injury is previous injury. Thus, for guys like John Gibson, who has suffered multiple soft tissue injuries over his career, there is only so much the training staff can do.

The odds are that eventually he’ll get injured again. This is also true for those who have suffered multiple concussions. Ondrej Kase is a prime example of this.

Yet, despite not throwing shade, the Anaheim Ducks also haven’t shown themselves to be a franchise that looks after their players’ health and extends their careers. Outside the scope of health, the Ducks have shown they’ll discard veteran players in an instant should they not perform to expectations.

Adam Henrique was dropped after but a handful of games this season. Franchise legend, Corey Perry, was bought out one season after scoring 49-points in 71-games (~57 point pace). The Ducks aren’t showing themselves to be a leader in player health and they’ve shown they’ll turn on their older players at the drop of a hat.

Should the Anaheim Ducks be actively pursuing a rebuild today, then being unable to attract marquee free agents and elite established players isn’t necessarily a concern for the short term. However, the probability is that one day, the Ducks will attempt to contend and they very may well want to recruit a star player.

Would Artemi Panarin have signed with the Ducks in the same way he signed with the Rangers? Jack Eichel may be on the move in the near future, however, would he choose the Ducks given his injury issues and public gripes with his current team surrounding them? Trust is earned and not given freely. Players all talk.

Given the above, I would argue that the Anaheim Ducks are creating an identity that is in stark contrast to that of successfully rebuilt teams such as the Nets and to an extent the Rangers. In this, I believe they need to alter their culture and advertise it.

Sean Marks, in his early days, was constantly talking with the media and would nearly always mention “culture.” He and the organization put the work in with the athletes they recruited and that was spread via word of mouth from player to player.

Eventually, they landed one of the best players in the world because that player believed in the team ethos and believed that the team could rehabilitate him. He brought his friends along for the ride.

Five hundred and sixty-one days after tearing his Achilles tendon, Kevin Durant stepped onto the court with his brand new team. He looked as though he hadn’t missed a day. Hell, Blake Griffin hadn’t dunked the basketball in two years with Detroit and slammed one-day first game back with the Nets. He now slams them down with regularity.

Imagine wanting to recruit Eichel and being able to point to players who your team has rehabilitated into credible threats once again after everyone thought they were washed. It’s a far easier sell than pointing to Jakob Silfverberg and saying he’s been playing through a painful hip complaint for two seasons.