Ducks Rumors

The Anaheim Ducks are one of the teams in the NHL still without a full-time general manager. After Bob Murray’s resignation earlier this season, Jeff Solomon is working as an interim GM, though he’s also a candidate in their current search. That search has reached the interview stage, and whoever is eventually selected for the position will have some difficult decisions to make.

The Ducks woke up yesterday on a four-game losing streak and had won just twice since Christmas. That stretch had erased much of the early season success the team had experienced and meant they were unable to pull away from some other Pacific Division teams that had also been through recent struggles.

In his column yesterday, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic wrote that no decision had been made on what direction the Ducks will take at the trade deadline. The team has some of the most impressive rental options in the league should they decide to sell them, including Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, and Josh Manson.

If Anaheim is waiting to see what kind of performance they have over the next several weeks, they certainly got off to a good start. The Ducks picked apart the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, defeating them 5-1 on the back of a strong performance from John Gibson.

That’s the kind of game that makes the Ducks’ deadline strategy so interesting. At times, they’ve shown an ability to compete with the best teams in the league, relying on a strong defense, exceptional goalie, and forward group dotted with impressive young talents. Trevor Zegras, the club’s uber-skilled sophomore, will be at the All-Star Weekend to show off his hands and creativity in the Breakaway Challenge despite not being selected for the actual game.

But there is also real value in selling off some of those expiring contracts, especially if further negotiations aren’t going to happen in the next few months. Extensions for all three would seem unlikely at this point, though LeBrun does write that he guesses the team will circle back to Manson at some point.

When considering the future of the Ducks, Zegras, All-Star Troy Terry, top prospect Mason McTavish, and rookie blueliner Jamie Drysdale stand out as the main pieces to build around. In fact, only Cam Fowler and Gibson are signed past the 2023-24 season, meaning whichever candidate lands the GM job will have the flexibility to shape the entire roster. That shape starts with the decision of whether to buy or sell at this deadline, a decision that could have ripples for years to come.

Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported today that the Anaheim Ducks have started the process of interviewing internal options to fill the general manager position, currently filled by assistant GM Jeff Solomon. LeBrun named Solomon, Dave Nonis, and Martin Madden as the candidates they’ve interviewed.

The position opened up last November when Bob Murray, their GM of 12 years, resigned from the club to enter a treatment program for alcohol abuse.

The 64-year-old Solomon is actually in his first year with the Ducks organization. He was named assistant general manager and VP of hockey operations this past summer after a 14-year career with Los Angeles’ hockey operations department.

Nonis is the only one of the named candidates who have general manager experience in the NHL. He was the GM of the Vancouver Canucks from 2004 to 2008 and the GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2012 to 2015. He’s worked in the NHL since 1998 and has been with Anaheim ever since departing Toronto in 2015.

Madden was also mentioned as a prospective candidate for Montreal’s GM vacancy, but those rumors have since cooled. The Québec City native was Anaheim’s director of amateur scouting from 2008 to 2020 before transitioning to his role as assistant general manager.

LeBrun mentions that Anaheim hasn’t yet begun the process of interviewing external candidates, but that should begin soon. He also notes that they haven’t yet reached out to the Tampa Bay Lightning for permission to interview their assistant general manager, Mathieu Darche, who’s one of the hotter candidates on the managerial market.

The Anaheim Ducks are one of several teams around the league currently searching for a new general manager after Bob Murray resigned from the position in early November. In his place, vice president of hockey operations Jeff Solomon was named interim GM and ownership indicated that a “methodical, extensive search” would begin to fill the position.

Now, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that a search committee has been formed, which includes a few familiar names for Ducks’ fans. CEO Michael Schulman and president of business operations Aaron Teats will be joined by Scott Niedermayer and Paul Kariya on the committee, which will also include owners Susan Samueli and Henry Samueli.

It’s difficult to find two more beloved figures in franchise history than Niedermayer and Kariya. The pair of Hall of Fame players had huge impacts on the success of Anaheim, with the former leading them to the organization’s only Stanley Cup. Niedermayer won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2007 and raised the Cup for the fourth time in his career after averaging just shy of 30 minutes per game on the Ducks’ championship run.

Kariya meanwhile was the franchise’s first superstar, entering the league in 1994 after his stint with the Canadian national team. He scored 39 points in 47 games as a rookie but would find a running mate in Teemu Selanne the following year and never look back. In 606 games for Anaheim, Kariya would score 300 goals and 669 points.

Yesterday, when discussing the multiple GM vacancies around the league on The Jeff Marek Show, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet noted that unlike some of the other spots, Anaheim has some big roster decisions to make in the coming months. Rickard Rakell, Hampus Lindholm, and Josh Manson are all unrestricted free agents at the end of the season and could bring back big returns should the Ducks decide to trade them at the deadline, while captain Ryan Getzlaf is also on just a one-year deal with the team. Anaheim has been good enough to perhaps consider adding, not subtracting at the deadline, but that kind of a decision would certainly be one that–in an ideal world at least–should be made by the team’s next GM.