Eric Soltys, the new University of Maine men’s hockey assistant coach. He spent the past four seasons with the Maine Nordiques as general manager. University of Maine athletics

Eric Soltys couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go back to Orono.

Soltys, the former Maine Nordiques general manager who left the organization in April, is returning to the University of Maine men’s hockey team as an assistant coach. He was an assistant coach with the Black Bears during the 2004-05 season.

He also has developed prior relationships with the current Maine coaching staff: head coach Ben Barr and assistants Alfie Michaud and Jason Fortier.

“I have known coach Barr for a long time, and coach Michaud, and I really got to know coach Fortier this year — the opportunity really presented itself with the current staff there,” Soltys said. “It’s such an easy fit because they are all great guys.”

Soltys and Barr first met each other in 1999-00 at Shattuck St. Mary’s, a prep school in Faribault, Minnesota. Soltys was a goalie coach, and Barr was a senior on the varsity prep team.

Barr, who took over as Black Bears head coach in the summer of 2021, said he and Soltys kept in touch after Shattuck St. Mary’s, and Barr recruited Solty’s players when Soltys ran the Selects Academy at South Kent in Connecticut.

“We have stayed close over the years, and we were at the right place, right time with him living in Lewiston,” Barr said. “The hockey world just works like that sometimes.”

Soltys and Fortier have mutual connections as both have worked for the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Soltys’ position at the University of Maine was created when  the NCAA allowed men’s hockey teams to hire a third paid assistant coach at the beginning of July.

The Black Bears will use Soltys as a recruiter more than a traditional assistant coach. Soltys has 15 years of experience as a scout in the NHL and the QMJHL.

Having someone on the road is essential to the Black Bears.

“Geographically for us, it’s not easy to get to places as it is for other schools in our league who are closer to Boston,” Barr said. “You can fly in and out, you can get to places easily, you can drive to places. For us, that’s a more time-consuming effort. Having someone like Eric who enjoys that piece of it and wants to do that piece of it is invaluable for us.”

Soltys said having Barr, Fortier and Michaud on the staff will help him on the recruiting trail and getting players to Orono.

“The connections I have had throughout my career are still very much in place, and with the character we have at the University of Maine and the people who work up there, it’s not hard to get my connections to really back us as far as what we are doing up there because they also know the same people, they know Ben, Jason and Alfie,” Soltys said. “It’s just being out there and reconnecting with my connections to spread the word on what’s going on.”

Barr said Soltys is the type of talent evaluator who looks beyond the hockey skills, which is important to Barr.

“He puts a lot of time in getting to know the kids and finding the right player, the right person, which is actually far more important than how tall they are, how much they weigh, how fast they are, or how good their hands are,” Barr said. “Are they the right person that’s willing to get pushed and get better, because we have them as much as four years, and a lot of times in our world, kids are committing two, or three years before they get to the school.

“So there’s a lot of time in between there, and Eric does a good job identifying those players that will keep improving in the time before they get to us — whether that’s junior hockey or prep hockey.”

Soltys said the Black Bears are working to return to national prominence like the program had when he was on Tim Whitehead’s staff in 2004-05. Maine reached the NCAA Tournament that year, losing in the first round to the University of Minnesota 1-0.

“I see a lot of similarities as to what’s going to be taking place in the transformation of this program,” Soltys said. “I think coach Whitehead, when I worked under him, had a good grasp of the program, and (assistant) coach (Grant) Standbrook did what he did best in the recruiting world. The program was right there where it needed to be. I think coach Barr, coach Fortier, and coach Michaud’s vision of where the program, when Ben started, all align up to make it to those high levels.

“We expect to be a national contender year after year once the recipe has been laid out. These kids have started to buy into it, and I see nothing but great things. That was the most intriguing part of it, just being able to do what you love to do with really good people that have the same vision of this program having a tremendous amount of success.”

Soltys said the sale of the Maine Nordiques from Darryl Antonacci to Shift Sports & Entertainment this spring wasn’t the reason he left the organization.

Soltys had only good things to say his time with the Nordiques, from 2019 to this past spring, including building the 2020-21 team that went to the North American Hockey League’s Robinson Cup.

“I couldn’t be prouder of Dr. Antonacci’s vision to come (to Lewiston), and win the Eastern (division) and represent the East in the national championship was what we are trying to do,” Soltys said. ” Moving onto Nick Skerlick, taking the reigns as head coach and GM, this kid has had success with the program at the academy level and moving kids onto the next level.”

Skerlick took over for Soltys as the Maine Nordiques general manager and became head coach of the NAHL team as Matt Pinchevsky got let go after the 2022-23 season.

Soltys remembers fondly the first Nordiques home game, when high-level junior hockey returned to The Colisee.

“The first game, the drop of the puck, was a dream come true for Dr. Antonacci, and the community to have hockey again was a real special moment,” Soltys said. “Obviously, going through the tough times of COVID and what we had to go through, it hurt as far as to keep that going the right way through the gate, but right before the team sold, we were in a good (place). I think the new ownership group and what they have going on, the people they have running it, and the team they will put on the ice are going to keep that growing.

“My favorite memory is the fact we were able to get it off the ground because I do believe the people that are there now (know how) to build it back to the status it was for the community prior to COVID.”