Northeastern University head coach Greg Cronin has been hired as an assistant coach by the Toronto Maple Leafs and will join Ron Wilson’s staff immediately.
Cronin, a Colby alum and Arlington, Mass. native whose father and uncle both played for Northeastern in the late 1950s, was hired from the New York Islanders, where he had coached their Bridgeport affiliate, in the spring of 2005. In his first season, Northeastern won three games, then 13, then 16 before going 25-12-4 in his fourth year. There has been a dropoff the past two years, though future recruiting classes are strong.
This past winter, Cronin and assistant Albie O’Connell were suspended by the school for six games in the wake of compliance officers discovering possible NCAA violations in the form of excess text messaging to players being recruited.
In addition, assistant coach Sebastian Laplante, who coached the team to a 2-2-2 record during the absence of Cronin and O’Connell, was suspended for six games. Laplante will serve his six games at the beginning of the upcoming season, which would likely have the effect of removing his name from any list of potential candidates.
Cronin’s leaving Northeastern is not a major surprise. At the end of the 2009-10 season, Cronin turned down an assistant’s position with the Vancouver Canucks. His relationship with AD Peter Roby, particularly since the suspension, was reportedly poor, and unlikely to get better. All of that fueled speculation, since the end of the season, as to whether Cronin would return to the pro game. That speculation become louder while Cronin was overseas in April working as an assistant on the staff of Team USA’s head coach Scott Gordon at the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Slovakia.
At any rate, Cronin has moved on, so let the speculation concerning his replacement begin. Likely candidates would include BC assistant Mike Cavanaugh, Lake Erie Monsters (AHL) head coach David Quinn, and NTDP head coach Ron Rolston. Former UMass-Lowell assistant Blaise MacDonald could be a strong candidate as well. The stock of Merrimack head coach Mark Dennehy is sky high right now, so Northeastern could go after him. Roby attended Dartmouth with Bob Gaudet; would he try to interest his former classmate in the position? A good outside candidate would be someone like Jim Montgomery, who last month led the expansion Dubuque Fighting Saints to a USHL title.
Assistant coach O’Connell, the key to Northeastern’s recruiting efforts, has been offered the vacant assistant’s position at Harvard, so that’s a viable option for him.
Cronin finishes at Northeastern with an 85-102-27 record
