{"id":754024,"date":"2026-07-10T05:07:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T05:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/754024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T05:07:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T05:07:26","slug":"ex-ducks-coaches-believe-in-mason-mctavish-hes-going-to-be-a-big-time-center-for-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/754024\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Ducks coaches believe in Mason McTavish: \u2018He\u2019s going to be a big-time center for Blues\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS \u2014 When the St. Louis Blues were doing their homework on Mason McTavish before making a trade<\/a> with the Anaheim Ducks, they checked in with Greg Cronin.<\/p>\n

Cronin, 63, was McTavish\u2019s coach with the Ducks for two seasons before being fired in April 2025<\/a> and replaced by Joel Quenneville. He spent the 2025-26 season with the Iowa Wild \u2014 Minnesota\u2019s top minor-league affiliate \u2014 but this season he\u2019s returning to the NHL as an assistant on Jim Montgomery\u2019s staff with the Blues.<\/p>\n

On his way out the door in Iowa, Cronin spoke with The Athletic\u2019s Joe Smith and touched on McTavish, the 6-foot-1, 219-pound forward who was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ironic that we pick up McTavish, right?\u201d Cronin said.<\/p>\n

Under Cronin, McTavish was in his second and third full seasons as a 21-year-old in 2023-24 and 22-year-old in 2024-25. In those two seasons combined, he had 41 goals and 94 points in 140 games, which included a career-high 22 goals and 52 points in 76 games in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe seemed to be coming along my last year,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cThere was some visible momentum with him, not only in his points, but in his skating and his decision-making. I don\u2019t know what happened. He got sat a few games (under Quenneville). I don\u2019t really talk to anybody (in Anaheim), so I don\u2019t really know what happened with him, why he became tradable. But I think he\u2019s a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cronin shared that opinion with the Blues when they asked about McTavish last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cInformation is information. It\u2019s always their decision what to do with it,\u201d Cronin said. \u201cI said positive things about him. I think anytime you do an evaluation on anybody, there\u2019s good and bad to everybody. Nobody\u2019s 100 percent great. They collect the data, weed through it and say, \u2018OK, we believe this.\u2019 I think when they went through their sources, (former GM Doug Armstrong) said, \u2018OK, this is what I think we have and this is what I think we can get out of him.’\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Cronin emphasized that McTavish is just 23 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he\u2019s still a kid,\u201d Cronin said.<\/p>\n

NHL offer sheets are just business<\/p>\n

Sean Gentille and Sean McIndoe<\/p>\n

Another coach on Anaheim\u2019s staff when McTavish played with the Ducks was assistant Craig Johnson.<\/p>\n

Johnson, 54, was drafted by the Blues in the second round (No. 33 overall) in the 1990 NHL draft, but in 1996 was part of a trade with the L.A. Kings that sent Wayne Gretzky to St. Louis. After a 10-year playing career, Johnson joined Dallas Eakins\u2019 coaching staff in Anaheim in 2022, and he remained with the Ducks after Cronin replaced Eakins.<\/p>\n

As an assistant, Johnson actually spent more one-on-one time with McTavish than Cronin on the ice and in the video room. He recalls a young player with a willingness to work and learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably what I remember the most about him: If we would be working on certain things after practice, he loved to compete,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWho could hit the right pipe the most? There was always some sort of game going on. He was very competitive and always wanted to know what he could do better \u2014 all the things you want in a player.\u201d<\/p>\n

In McTavish\u2019s first full NHL season in 2022-23, he had 17 goals and 43 points in 80 games. He ranked third among rookies behind the Seattle Kraken\u2019s Matty Beniers (57 points) and the Arizona Coyotes\u2019 Matias Maccelli (49).<\/p>\n

In McTavish\u2019s second season, he had 19 goals and 42 points in 64 games. He missed the final six games of the regular season with a sprained knee, so while he had two fewer goals and one less point than the previous season, he played in 16 fewer games, so his per-game totals were both higher.<\/p>\n

And he was producing on a Ducks team that finished dead last in the NHL standings in 2022-23 (58 points) and third-last in 2023-24 (59 points).<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was drafted to be one of the young core players so that when the Ducks got better, he would be one of the key pieces in that,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI look at what he had to go through, and he went through it with positivity. He was never negative. He was never like, \u2018Our team stinks.\u2019 He showed up, he wanted to play, and he wanted to be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson spent hours with McTavish working on his faceoffs, which improved from a 42.3 percent win rate as a rookie to 51.7 percent in his second season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would drop a lot of pucks, and he worked on getting that faceoff percentage up,\u201d Johnson remembers.<\/p>\n

The two did a lot of work, too, on McTavish\u2019s forechecking. They prepared for various teams, such as the Carolina Hurricanes, who may give you more time on a cutback, or the Vegas Golden Knights, who may not give you as much space. After games, they watched video and analyzed each of his puck touches.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he gets the puck down low, did he head-check? Who\u2019s open? Does he make a good decision with it?\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWere they good passes? Were they flat? Were they on the tape? Did you put your teammate in a better position?<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has really good vision, and he\u2019s getting better with his puck protection, too. There\u2019s puck protection where you\u2019re moving your feet, and there\u2019s protection when you\u2019re being pushed up against the boards. So, little things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In general, McTavish has good vision, according to Johnson. In his four full seasons in Anaheim, he had 103 total assists; 71 of those came five-on-five, and 44 of those were primary helpers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very good with \u2014 it would be (called) a hook pass,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s able to hook it through triangles, hook it around guys. Off the rush, he\u2019ll find guys. He has that ability to find the second layer of players coming in, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vast majority of criticism of McTavish has been centered on his lack of foot speed. According to NHL Edge stats, his max skating speed was 21.85 mph in 2025-26, which ranked in the bottom 50th percentile in the league. He had just 29 bursts of 20 mph or greater, which also ranked in the bottom 50th percentile.<\/p>\n

Johnson didn\u2019t deny the notion, but had a counterpoint.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be extremely fast, but you have to have change of speed,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe just has to keep developing that pace. As he continues to get older and get stronger and redefine his skating, he\u2019s going to play with more pace and more energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other focus on McTavish has been his play in his own end. He was on the ice for 45 five-on-five goals for last season and 58 against, which was the most against of any Ducks forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not bad in the defensive zone, he is getting better at it, and he\u2019ll keep getting better as he gets more experience,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s big, he\u2019s strong and he has a really good stick, so he just has to use those physical tools to help him in the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blues made the move for McTavish with the mindset that he would be their No. 2 center, and the idea of a slower player who has struggled defensively is concerning to many fans.<\/p>\n

Johnson, however, says not to worry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s going to be a big-time center for the Blues,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe wants to be an elite player in the league. He\u2019s going to gain his confidence in the game. Monty is such a good coach, and I think playing for Monty is going to be good for Mason. I have faith in his ability to watch video and learn from his mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be one other motivating factor for McTavish: the trade.<\/p>\n

McTavish and former Ducks teammate Trevor Zegras used to be among the last ones on the ice in Anaheim, and after an inconsistent stretch early in Zegras\u2019 career, he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2025. At 24, he had a career-high 26 goals and 67 points in 81 games in his first season with the Flyers in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go to a new team, you want to prove yourself,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cYou want to show what type of player you are, and you also want to show the Ducks, \u2018Hey, you guys made a mistake getting rid of me.\u2019 I think Mason has a lot to prove, and he\u2019s a player that\u2019s going to work hard to prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LOUIS \u2014 When the St. Louis Blues were doing their homework on Mason McTavish before making a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99,1610],"class_list":["post-754024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-blues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}