Greg Cronin announces his departure from Anaheim Ducks.
Following his firing in December 2021, Vigneault, who is still under contract with the Flyers, stated that this would be his last contract and that he had no plans to resume coaching. According to reports from The Athletic and Pierre LeBrun of TSN last summer, Vigneault’s tenure as an NHL head coach was probably coming to an end in Philadelphia.
A rather illustrious coaching career is behind the 62-year-old Canadian coach. Vigneault is ranked 15th in NHL history for the most games coached, with 1,363 behind an NHL bench. During his coaching career, he amassed over 700 victories, a record held by just nine other coaches in NHL history.
He never had his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup, though; therefore, he fell short of being the greatest hockey player of all time. Despite playing in 12 of his 19 seasons, he qualified for the playoffs twice and lost both times.
When Vigneault took over as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1997–98 season, his NHL coaching career officially began. After that, he became a coach for the New York Rangers, the Vancouver Canucks, and ultimately the Philadelphia Flyers.
The main piece of silverware that Vigneault owns was the Jack Adams Award he received in his first season with the Canucks in 2006–07, following his team to a 49–26-7 record and the Northwest Division championship. The Vancouver Canucks were eliminated in the second round by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, despite Ducks defender Scott Niedermayer’s relatively innocuous double-overtime victory in Game 5 (video link).
Vigneault’s most prosperous stint was definitely in Vancouver, where he won two consecutive Presidents’ Trophies with the team in 2010–11 and 2011–12. In 2011, the Canucks made their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final in almost 20 years; however, after leading the series 2-0, they were defeated by the Boston Bruins in seven games.
Three seasons later, Vigneault returned to the Stanley Cup Final with the New York Rangers, but the team lost all three of the series’ overtime games before falling to the Los Angeles Kings 4-1.
