Throw away everything we know about John Chayka in the NHL
The Toronto Maple Leafs ushered in the next era of their organization on Monday, officially unveiling John Chayka as general manager of the team, filling the void left by Brad Treliving, while also naming Mats Sundin as the senior executive advisor of hockey operations.
While there are plenty of doubts around both, given Chayka’s poor record with the Arizona Coyotes and Sundin’s inexperience in a front-office role, there’s hope that the two can muster some magic for Toronto’s highly coveted NHL fanbase.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, The Sheet’s Jeff Marek joined co-hosts Tyler Yamrechuk and Carter Hutton to break down everything that could be in store for the new leadership, as well as how important Chayka’s past truly is.
Tyler Yaremchuk: It’s been a long time since John Chayka was a member of an NHL organization, and even longer since Mats Sundin was a member of an NHL organization… there’s a lot of negativity going around, so I kind of wanted to start this with a positive spin, like, what do the Leafs like about the Sundin and Chayka duo?
Jeff Marek: Well, the Sundi n thing is obvious. It’s a star from yesteryear, someone so invested in becoming part of a management group that he’s moving his family back to Toronto. It isn’t one of those, where the family is going to stay in Sweden and he’d parachute in a couple of times a month, no, he’s in for a penny, in for a pound on this one.
As far as John Chayka goes, firstly, everything in Arizona is kind of throwaway and here’s why. We all went through the ups and downs and the sagas of what was happening in front of the scenes, behind the scenes, around the side door of the scenes. It was ugly there for a long time, like that was a horrible place to work, especially at the end with Alex Merulo and his son; things did not go great at all. We saw it all play itself out. There was the obvious stuff and the reported stuff, and you guys have all heard the whispers about everything that happened behind the scenes with the Arizona Coyotes, and I’m willing to submit that pretty much everything you’ve heard is probably true. So, it was a horrible environment to work in. Look how Bill Armstrong in Utah is different than Bill Armstrong in Arizona, he looks like a completely different manager, but he’s the same guy. You just didn’t have the opportunity to do things in Arizona as you do now in Utah.
I don’t know that we can use what happened in Arizona necessarily as a predictor for how things are going to happen with the Toronto Maple Leafs, because I cannot think of two things that are more dissimilar, like it’s not even apples and oranges, it’s chalk and cheese. That’s how different these two organizations are. We can’t take much from the Arizona experience, other than that John Chayka is now 10 years older, more experienced and wiser. I think one of the reasons he resonates with MLSE so much is that he’s a strategic thinker. Now, he’s also a fast riser in his career, which I think is what attracted him to Keith Pelley, who, himself, was a fast riser in his career.
Chayka has the belief that, and I believe MLSE thinks this way too, that strategic thinking can be applied in just about any situation, and John Chayka sort of uses hockey as his domain to express how creative and thoughtful he is, using his brand of strategic thinking. He’s also a very successful businessman.
The way he thinks about business, you can say, is the same way he thinks about hockey. I think for a very corporate place like MLSE, that really resonates here. That’s why I think he’s, he’s really struck a chord with Keith Pelley and with everybody at MLSE. I think that’s why it feels like a sweet spot for them. Will it work? We don’t know. And I kind of say this whenever there’s, whenever there’s a new hire, right? Like, we’re just guessing speculation. Again, it’s a completely different situation from Arizona. Everybody clamors about. seeing too much of the old boys and recycled general managers. And all of a sudden, a fresh face comes around, and everybody moans about no experience. Well, you can’t have it both ways. Really, when it comes down to it, it’s like making predictions on playoff series. The real answer is we don’t know.
You can catch the full breakdown of John Chayka’s appointment and the future of the Toronto Maple Leafs, as well as the rest of the episode right here…