Kings executive jumps to Ducks: What Jeff Solomons move means for each front office -

The Ducks did not waste any time — or look far — in filling an important vacancy in their front office.

This, however, was not a promotion from within. Jeff Solomon comes from outside their organization, but the 63-year-old executive’s new office will be just a couple of Southern California freeways away from his old one.

Solomon joins Anaheim as its vice president of hockey operations and assistant general manager after spending the last 15 years with the rival Los Angeles Kings. That’s where he played a crucial part in the organization’s ability to become a Western Conference power, one that reached the heights of Stanley Cup championships in 2012 and 2014.

The Kings have taken a downturn, winning just one playoff game since 2014 and missing the postseason for three years running. It is a state the Ducks are familiar with, having also sat out three straight playoffs and having slid down the West’s hierarchy toward the bottom of the NHL. But that won’t be the only similarity Solomon finds upon taking on his new position.

Solomon will manage Anaheim’s salary cap and be its go-to voice when it comes to navigating the league’s collective bargaining agreement. He will also oversee the team’s yearly budget that is spent on player contracts and he will handle negotiations on new deals. Much of those tasks were covered by David McNab, who announced his retirement two weeks ago as senior vice president of hockey operations after occupying multiple executive roles for the Ducks since they entered the league in 1993.

Leaving one rebuilding situation, from the Kings’ headquarters in suburban El Segundo, for another just 45 miles away in Anaheim’s home base in the Orange County city of Irvine, Solomon will walk into an offseason with the Ducks in which he will be part of some key decisions about the immediate and longer-term future of players, and for the first time in years, the Ducks will have some cap flexibility.

Mike Futa, who worked in the Kings’ front office from 2007-20, said the Ducks are “getting an all-star at that position” when it comes to cap management and that “it’s a huge pickup” for the franchise.

“He’s as good at that job as anyone I’ve ever seen,” Futa told The Athletic on Monday. “Meticulous. He’s very good at it. He treats the owner’s money like it’s his own and he’s very, very knowledgeable. He was invaluable to the group.”

This isn’t the first time the Ducks have made a hire with notable ties to the Kings. In July 2019, Darryl Sutter was brought onto the coaching staff by general manager Bob Murray as an advisor to Dallas Eakins after spending two years in retirement. Sutter, who coached the Kings to their two titles before being fired after the 2016-17 season, left his Alberta cattle farm this year to helm Calgary for a second stint with the Flames.

With the departures of Futa and Solomon in less than 13 months, the Kings have parted ways with two hockey operations executives who had a combined 28 years with the team.

“Jeff has been a key member of our organization for several years,” the team said in a three-sentence statement Monday. “At Jeff’s request, we agreed to mutually terminate his employment agreement to allow him to pursue other career opportunities. We appreciate all that Jeff has done for our hockey operations group and we thank him for his contributions.”

Solomon, who was hired by the Kings in 2007, represented continuity and institutional knowledge in what has become an increasingly insular management group. He had been their executive vice president of hockey operations and legal affairs. As the Kings enter their most important offseason in years, it is unclear if they will immediately hire a replacement for Solomon or if his responsibilities will be shared by others already working with hockey operations, or a combination.

“Jeff is as knowledgeable as any executive in the entire NHL when it comes to analytics,” said influential player agent Allan Walsh of Octagon.

It will be a major loss for the Kings, as Solomon essentially carried out the job of three individuals, leading and having built the analytics department, negotiating contracts and managing the cap. He was adept at formulating solutions when faced with salary-cap woes.

One of his biggest salary cap challenges was early in the 2014-15 season, when the Kings were $160 short in cap room and could not call up a player making the minimum salary and had to play short one defenseman against the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 8 because of an injury to Robyn Regehr.

“The old term about being a day late and a dollar short is almost accurate to the penny,” Solomon told L.A. Kings Insider.

Later, Solomon took on another vital task, hiring analytics guru and author Rob Vollman shortly before the 2018-19 season and then adding Hayden Speak to the mix in August 2019. Speak was the founder and creator of prospect-stats.com.

“We had to build the analytics up from the ground floor,” Mark Yannetti, the Kings’ director of amateur scouting, told The Athletic in June of 2020,

For Vollman, Solomon was an important factor in making the move from Calgary to Southern California.

“Jeff represents the organization very well in the sense that he has a real long-term thorough commitment to everything that can give the team an edge,” Vollman said in 2020 to The Athletic. “I know his commitment to this field. It’s not an infatuation or a fad to him or to the organization.”

Solomon got his start in the business of NHL hockey as a player agent. Among his clients were former Kings Tony Granato and Nelson Emerson, who is the team’s director of player personnel.

“Agents talk to other agents and bump into each other,” Walsh said. “The industry is hyper-competitive and lots of times agents bump into agents and look the other way. I was just breaking into the business and any time I bumped into Jeff in Anaheim or in L.A, after a game waiting for clients, he always came over to say hello and was always warm and willing to chat and to be professional.

“He carried and conducted himself like a pro, as opposed to some of the other guys who wouldn’t even acknowledge your presence and look the other way.”

Walsh later faced Solomon in contract negotiations after Solomon went to work for then-general manager Dean Lombardi and the Kings. Solomon’s son Drew is also in the hockey business, as an agent with Octagon.

In negotiating, Walsh said he dealt with Solomon 99 percent of the time when it came to Kings’ contracts.

“He is someone who is obsessively and meticulously prepared for any conversation you have during a negotiation,” Walsh said. “Knowing how prepared he is and how obsessed he is with being prepared — and I mean a total obsession — you just know that whenever you’re dealing with him, you had better be just as obsessed and just as prepared.

“Because he will leave no stone unturned in pushing the best interests of the club.”

Added another prominent agent, Pat Brisson of CAA, who has also done deals with Solomon over the years: “Knows his role very well. He is very organized and knowledgeable. Definitely talented and prepared.”

It will be interesting to see how the Ducks continue to shape their management structure. The organization has been criticized for being slow to embrace analytics when it comes to player evaluation. Given his experience with the Kings, Solomon could make inroads there.

He’ll be the third assistant GM supporting Murray, the franchise’s top decision-maker. Martin Madden was promoted last summer, as the Ducks did not want their scouting chief to be lured away, with the expansion Seattle Kraken pursuing him. Dave Nonis, who previously was GM in Vancouver and Toronto, remains a top lieutenant with longstanding ties to his Anaheim boss.

Futa said Solomon worked well with Lombardi, who was a “get it done” executive who wanted someone who could execute the strategies he had in mind. Now the one-time agent will be a key part of their rival’s brain trust.

“If Dean gave him a project, everything that he did was done efficiently and professionally,” Futa said. “I think it was really fun for Solly because being an agent, you kind of don’t get to be part of a team. And I think for Solly, to be part of a team and to win a Cup as a teammate, I think that was something in his professional life that was missing, and I think it was really good for him.”

(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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