From NEHJ: Cronin turns over new Leaf
After a six-year run as head coach at Northeastern, Greg Cronin is looking forward to a new challenge alongside a number of familiar faces this fall.
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Greg Cronin returns to the NHL with the Maple Leafs after helping to turn around Northeastern's program. (Dave Arnold Photography) |
The Arlington, Mass., native accepted an offer to become an
assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs last month, leaving
behind Huntington Avenue for what many consider to be the mecca of
hockey.
“Honestly, I was surprised by it,” Cronin said.
“I was at the World Championship and (Leafs GM) Brian Burke
was there with us, and (Leafs senior VP) Dave Nonis was with Team
Canada. I’ve known Dave for 21 years. We were together at the
University of Maine and taught how to coach by Shawn Walsh. There
was never any conversation about anything opening up in Toronto.
‘Burkie’ didn’t say anything either, and
I’ve known him for a long time.”
Cronin won’t be the only newcomer behind the Leafs bench
this season. Burke (Providence, R.I.) — who first met Cronin
at Maine while starting out as an agent — also hired fellow
New Englander Scott Gordon (Easton, Mass.), whom Cronin served
under as an assistant during the World Championship in Slovakia
this spring.
“We obviously coached against each other in the American
Hockey League, but the only time I had a relationship with him was
the World Championship,” Cronin said of Gordon, who coached
the Providence Bruins before spending two-plus seasons behind the
New York Islanders’ bench. “We had good chemistry, so
that made it easy. There have been similar paths that we’ve
been in and out of.”
The two new assistants will serve under Ron Wilson (Riverside,
R.I.), a Providence College alumnus whom Cronin described as the
poster-coach for USA hockey during the founding of the U.S.
National Team Development Program back in 1997. The former
Huskies’ bench boss will be focusing on the penalty kill and
working with the team’s forwards.
“It’s kind of trendy now in the NHL and pro football;
they’re moving coordinators and different coaches around to
add more energy and more color to the staff,” Cronin said.
“I think me and Scott Gordon were kind of in that
dynamic.”
It’s been six years since Cronin last coached professionals,
as he spent four years as an assistant with the Islanders before
spending the next two as the bench boss for their farm team.
However, the Leafs are chock full of young, budding talent, putting
Cronin in a situation quite similar to his early days in New
York.
“We started out with all these young guys like Zdeno Chara,
Timmy Connolly, Raffi Torres, Rick DiPietro, Roberto Luongo and
Olli Jokinen,” Cronin said. “We had all these kids that
were 18-, 19- and 20-year-old kids that should have been in college
or high school for God’s sake. The first couple years there,
it was very similar to what we were doing at the U.S. National
Development program. We were just trying to get them to practice
and play with good habits, and trying to generate some sort of
identity for the young kids so they could have some internal
accountability.”
During his tenure there, the Islanders went through a dramatic
transformation, parlaying most of those young assets into seasoned
veterans — a move that gave Cronin some much-needed
experience in dealing with proven pros.
“I think when you get older guys, you’ve got to manage
an ego and you’ve got to make sure that person has got some
pride in what that role is going to be in making the team
successful,” he said. “To that point, the guys are all
looking for the next contract, it usually translates through the
points they get. You get that flash of the me-versus-the-team
thing.
“The young guys, they just want to play. They don’t
really (care) about points. They want to play and they want to be a
part of something. The situation in college is very similar to the
situation with young kids in the pros. They’re all just eager
to get involved and they want to be part of the team.”
Many might wonder why Cronin would leave the familiar landscape of
NCAA hockey behind. While landing a spot with an Original Six
franchise such as the Maple Leafs is undoubtedly a promotion on
paper, some might suspect a return to Northeastern was out of the
question, given the school’s suspension of the 48-year-old
coach for recruiting violations in February. Cronin, however,
intimated that the decision was entirely voluntary.
After a few trying seasons, including a three-win campaign in his
first year on the job, the Bay State native helped lift NU up from
the laughingstock of Hockey East to a legitimate threat to
perennial powerhouses Boston College and Boston University. Along
the way, Cronin boasted the highest winning percentage among all
Huskies coaches since Fern Flaman’s tenure ended in 1989. He
won Hockey East Coach of the Year in 2008-09, led Northeastern to
its fourth NCAA tournament appearance in team history and, most
importantly, helped instill a winning tradition into a program that
was desperately in need of someone to guide it in the right
direction.
“I really enjoyed coaching in college,” Cronin said.
“It’s a great job and the kids are really coachable.
Everything is there to be successful. The campus is terrific, the
resources are great, the player development resources are very
visible.”
Walking away from all of that certainly isn’t easy, but
Cronin is eager to face the test that awaits him in Toronto.
“I had a great job at Northeastern and it took six years to
build it up to where it is,” he said. “It was tough for
me to leave there because I like Boston, I grew up here and I love
the direction the program is going, but I wanted to give pro hockey
a try again. I don’t think there’s a better
organization for me to go to personally than one that’s being
run by Brian Burke and Dave Nonis.”
THE STAT
In the past three seasons, injury-plagued goalie Rick DiPietro has
earned about $1.2 million per victory (11 wins, $13.5 million).
Boyle stays on Broadway
After a year that saw him record a career-high 21 goals and 35
points, Brian Boyle reaped the benefits of his breakout season. The
Rangers agreed to a three-year deal with a cap hit of $1.7 million
with the Hingham, Mass., native, who entered the offseason as a
restricted free agent.
“We all want to be a big contributor to a team that does
well, has a good run in the playoffs and hopefully can win the
Stanley Cup,” said Boyle, 26, when asked about the
Rangers’ corps of young players taking the next step.
“When you break it down as individuals, we all want to be as
big of a part as we can.”
Boyle, a Boston College alumnus, led the Blueshirts in shots on
goal and finished 11th in the NHL with 240 hits. The 6-foot-7
forward is optimistic he can be even better in 2011-12.
“I think each of us who kind of came into our own last year
have a responsibility to get better and to improve on last season
as individuals and as a team,” he said. “We have to
make sure we, as athletes, are in top shape and ready to perform at
the highest level.”
Pair of blueliners jet to Sweden
While their relocation from Atlanta to Winnipeg is now complete, a
few former Thrashers won’t be suiting up for the city’s
second edition of the Jets this coming season.
Noah Welch (Brighton, Mass.) and Freddy Meyer (Sanbornville, N.H.)
each inked deals with members of the Swedish Elite League this
summer, departing North America to continue their pro careers in
Europe.
Welch signed on with HV71, a team that led the league with 96
points in 2010-11. The 28-year-old defenseman appeared in two games
for Atlanta last season. In 50 games for their AHL affiliate in
Chicago, Welch had two goals and a total of 13 points.
After struggling to get consistent playing time with the
Thrashers, Meyer will now join Modo, which finished last in the
SEL’s standings last season. The 30-year-old blueliner played
in a career-high 64 games in 2009-10 for the Islanders but suited
up for just 15 tilts last season in Atlanta.
Whitney breaks Yandle news
Hockey fans often find themselves glued to Twitter for all the
latest breaking news in July, eager to catch every scoop on where
the league’s free agents might be headed. But when it came to
the announcement of Keith Yandle’s new contract with Phoenix,
a good friend of the Coyotes’ star blueliner got the jump on
all of the esteemed experts and insiders.
Oilers defenseman Ryan Whitney (Scituate, Mass.) let his
40,000-plus followers in on the deal before any other source got
the word out.
“Keith Yandle becoming a very wealthy man by signing his new
deal with the Phoenix Coyotes for five years, $26.25
million,” Whitney tweeted.
TSN’s Darren Dreger, usually the authority on such matters,
got a good laugh out of the situation when fans alerted him to
Whitney’s announcement.
“Wow. Ryan Whitney with a scoop?” Dreger tweeted.
“Haven’t scanned Twitter to verify. Nice work, Whit!
Now, stay out of my business!”
With his burgeoning popularity and bevy of amusing quips on
Twitter (@ryanwhitney6), Whitney is setting himself up quite nicely
for a career as an entertaining television personality when
it’s time to hang up his skates.
This article originally appeared in the August 2011 issue of
New England Hockey Journal.
Jesse Connolly can be reached at jconnolly@hockeyjournal.com