Verbeek Discusses Coaching Change, Looks Ahead to Key Summer Decisions

It's officially time for the offseason in Anaheim.
General Manager Pat Verbeek met with local media today to discuss his decision not to renew the contract of head coach Dallas Eakins, his plans for a coaching search, the development of the club's young core and much more.
AnaheimDucks.com recaps the key takeaways from that conversation below. Some answers have been lightly edited for clarity.

On Dallas Eakins
Early this morning I spoke with Dallas and informed him that we would not be renewing his contract or giving him an extension to coach the team. We had a good meeting. I think that there are a lot of good things about Dallas. He's agood person. He was in a difficult situation and I think he handled himself with the utmost professionalism. For his great dedication to the organization and work ethic, we want to thank Dallas for his efforts. Today was not a fun day for anybody. It's never fun to have to do this, but ultimately, I'm in charge of making those decisions.

On his conversation with Eakins
He took it in the utmost professional way he could. When you're in this business long enough, myself included as a player, when a coach tells you you're not gonna play, that night or you're sitting out three, four games in a row, that's hard to take. And that's kind of the same analogy I'm trying to give you. It's not easy for him to take that. It wasn't easy. He's a good person and it wasn't an easy decision to do it.
On his timeline for a coaching search
Well ultimately I'd like to get a coach in place before the draft, but I'm not going to limit myself to that. I'm going to open the search up wide open. I'm not going to limit any candidate to this job. Obviously, there's still a lot of work to do, but I feel that we're on a path with younger players getting infused in a lineup and now we have to have those players start taking bigger steps.

On why he chose to make a coaching change
When I looked at it, there are kind of three things. I wanted a fresh start. I wanted a new voice speaking to the team and I wanted a different direction. So ultimately, those things played into my decision and that's where I ended up arriving at this decision today.
On the team's struggles this season
As I've mentioned before, we got off to a bad start and I expected our team to compete harder. We got behind the eight ball in there and I think eventually we got better, but we're not at a level that I want. It's not the standard that I want. And it's certainly not near a standard for winning or making the playoffs.
On qualities he will be looking for in a new head coach
I think the easy ones are hardworking, passionate and with energy. Obviously, you have to be prepared strategy-wise and identity-wise. So those would be the sorts of things that I'm looking into.
On the rebuild timeline
You can hope, you know, but I think that's kind of a hypothetical. There are a lot of things that have to happen in order for [the Ducks competing for championships] to happen. Like I can'tput a time or an exact period on when some of these young guys are gonna take steps. Some guys could go faster, some guys could take longer. I feel comfortable in the players that we drafted. I feel comfortable in the players that are coming, that we're going to be challenging for the playoffs. Experience, time, development, those are all going to be important. And I'm not gonna rush players. I'm not gonna put them in bad situations in order to get them to the NHL before they're ready.
On negotiating with the club's restricted free agents
Yeah, we've got a long summer, so we're gonna start those with all our restricted free agents. (laughs) We could be in for a busy summer.