Inside look at Anaheim Ducks

NHL.com is providing in-depth roster, prospect and fantasy analysis for each of its 32 teams from Aug. 1-Sept. 1. Today, the Anaheim Ducks.

Greg Cronin believes the Anaheim Ducks are ready to take the next step and compete for a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after not qualifying each of the past five seasons.

Cronin, hired as coach on June 5 to replace Dallas Eakins, who was fired on April 14, enters his first NHL head coaching job after coaching Colorado of the American Hockey League the past five seasons. He was an NHL assistant coach for 12 seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs and New York Islanders, coached New York's AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, Connecticut, from 2003-05, and coached Northeastern University for six seasons (2005-11).

"We're trying to make the playoffs," Cronin said. "We're not playing for consolation prizes. We're playing this year to make the playoffs. That's our goal. ... As we saw last season, Florida gets in the playoffs [on] the last day, and they go to the Final. So, our job is to make the playoffs."

Anaheim ranked 31st in goals per game (2.51), last in goals against per game (4.09), and 31st on the power play (15.7 percent) and penalty kill (72.1 percent) last season.

"Scoring is the most coveted skill, right?" Cronin said. "Guys that score goals get paid the most for a reason. They impact the most. In the absence of having a natural goal-scorer, you've got to have community scoring, team scoring. … So, we've got to try and design a system that's going to invite that team-scoring mentality, and I have some ideas, but there's some things that we need to do to recruit more scoring into our team because we're not going to win a lot of games if we score at the rate we scored last year."

Cronin should fit right in with the roster, which includes plenty of young talent like forwards Trevor Zegras, 22, and Troy Terry, 25, and defenseman Jamie Drysdale, 21, but also players hoping to make the Ducks out of camp, like forwards Leo Carlsson, Jacob Perreault, Nathan Gaucher, and defensemen Olen Zellweger, and Pavel Mintyukov.

"I think [what] we're going to try and do is give them all an opportunity to compete at training camp and then see who responds in a mature way," Cronin said. "And then hopefully there's some reliable trajectory to that growth."

Anaheim also signed two veterans in free agency on July 1 -- forward Alex Killorn to a four-year contract and defenseman Radko Gudas to a three-year deal. Killorn is a two-time Stanley Cup winner with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Gudas made the Cup Final with the Florida Panthers last season and brings grit; he was second in the NHL in hits last season (312; Luke Schenn, 318).

Goalie Alex Stalocksigned a one-year contract with Anaheim on Aug. 7.

"Certainly, they have an understanding of what winning's all about, not accepting losing," Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said. "So, that standard of compete, that standard of work ethic every day that comes to practice will be shown to all our young guys. I think there's instant credibility with these guys walking inside that locker room. It's a leadership that our team certainly needed and they're awesome people to go with it."

It's a new challenge for Killorn after being on a perennial Cup contender for the past decade, but one he is willing to embrace.

"I've been on a lot of winning teams in the past," Killorn said. "I'm definitely hoping to bring a veteran leadership to this group. I know it's probably a younger team than I've been on before, but I look forward to that. There's so much talent when you look at the guys that are on this team and guys that are about to be on this team, whether it's this year or the next year.

"These are things that I've thought about when I made this decision. So, I'm hoping to bring kind of a veteran leadership, a guy that can help out offensively and defensively. That's what I did in Tampa and I'm hoping to do the same here."

With exciting young players already on the team and a prospect system packed with talent, Killorn said he thinks it might not be long before the Ducks are competitive again.

"You obviously want to be part of a successful team," Killorn said. "Anaheim hasn't been successful the past year, but looking at their depth, their prospects they have … I'm really excited for the future of this team."