Wild lose AHL head coach to Blues

The Minnesota Wild finds itself in need of a new head coach for its AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.

Greg Cronin is joining Jim Montgomery's St. Louis Blues coaching staff, the team announced on Monday. Cronin will reportedly oversee St. Louis' defensemen and penalty kill unit.

Cronin, 63, was appointed the Iowa head coach just last season. Iowa struggled in Cronin's lone season in charge, missing the playoffs for the fourth time in the last five seasons with a 27-36-6-3 record. However, after giving up the second-most goals in the league during the 2024-25 season, they improved to a middle-of-the-league defense, allowing the 16th-fewest goals in the AHL in 2025-26.

In terms of goals scored, Iowa still struggled to put the puck in the back of the net. The Wild ended the regular season with the second-fewest goals, which is a regression from the fifth-fewest the season prior, scoring 22 fewer goals year over year.

Cronin joined the Wild after two seasons in charge of the NHL's Anaheim Ducks. Under Cronin, the Ducks improved from 59 points in his first season to 80 points during his second season. Despite the improvement, Anaheim was still far off from making the playoffs, finishing 21 points back of a postseason berth.

The Ducks continued their upward trajectory this season, finishing with 92 points and making the playoffs. They were just two points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for the top spot in the Pacific Division.

Now, the Iowa Wild will be looking for its third head coach in four seasons. Brett McLean took over ahead of the 2023-24 season and coached for two years before leaving to join the Vancouver Canucks.

It's unclear whether Iowa will look to promote from within or, like last year, look outside the organization to turn things around.