John Chayka has a divisive reputation. Can he and the Maple Leafs overcome it?

It’s truthful to say that Monday’s information convention saying the Toronto Maple Leafs’ new basic supervisor goes to be remembered and talked about for a lengthy, very long time on this metropolis.

We’ll see if it is for the unsuitable causes.

Word that John Chayka was on the run to be the Leafs’ subsequent high hockey govt first hit my inbox at the begin of April. A supply with longstanding connections to the staff despatched over an article from a site I hadn’t heard of that said Chayka had talked to the staff about a place way back to February, nicely earlier than earlier GM Brad Treliving had been fired.

I responded that it felt unlikely, even when he was on the lengthy checklist of candidates. (MLSE president Keith Pelley mentioned Monday he spoke with 27 altogether throughout the search course of.)

Within a week, nonetheless, it grew to become clear Chayka was a finalist for the position as they started to chop right down to 4 names. Another two weeks later, he gave the impression to be Pelley’s best choice.

Along the manner, as his candidacy grew to become extra of a positive factor, I acquired unsolicited texts and calls from a number of executives round the NHL who wished to speak about simply what was happening in Toronto with the staff’s GM search.

The actuality is many round the league are baffled by the Leafs’ resolution, to the level that it is turn out to be the No. 1 cleaning soap opera in hockey circles. That’s why it did not shock me when the information convention was overshadowed by the now-viral query about Chayka’s credentials and character.

It was telling, too, that when Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman sat down with Chayka shortly after the media gathering, one of his first questions for the new GM wasn’t about his imaginative and prescient or mandate. It was about this notion drawback that seems to be widespread.

Chayka could have been out of the league since 2020, and solely in the GM’s chair in Arizona for 4 years earlier than that, however he actually made an impression. And it wasn’t a nice one.

“People are looking for reasons to come after you,” Friedman mentioned at one level in his dialog with Chayka, as they addressed a new report about tampering allegations that landed earlier than he had even formally taken the Leafs job.

That’s not a typical assertion you’d see posed to an incoming hockey ops rent. In reality, none of that is regular enterprise relating to these sorts of bulletins. Many controversial candidates appear to get handled with child gloves at their introductory media availability, with their previous failures ignored and the redemption arc a part of the story of the day.

It makes one surprise why this Chayka scenario is exclusive: Why is he, particularly, so polarizing in a league the place underperforming retread executives are recycled each offseason?

To me, this complete scenario is a good storm, one the place a number of components — together with some which have little to do with Chayka’s previous — are at play. There’s the Leafs’ historic plummet down the standings this season, mixed with Pelley coming in as a new face of possession, and the tales about dysfunction behind the scenes.

Then you layer in Chayka’s background as the NHL’s youngest GM ever, throughout a tenure in Arizona that went sideways on the ice and off — in more ways than one — plus his suspension, adopted by a lengthy tenure out of the league. The manner Chayka Reportedly treated Shane Doan At the finish of his profession is one other frequent criticism you hear, too.

Many who had been round the Coyotes at the time believed Chayka would not get one other alternative with an NHL staff, given all that he went on.

“Everyone’s pretty shocked,” mentioned Craig Morgan, an Arizona-based sportswriter who lined Chayka’s time there for TheAthletic. “I thought he might be blackballed.”

Chayka did not appear inclined to totally mirror on these previous failures on Monday. Asked what he had realized after his errors in Arizona, Chayka repeatedly tied them again to what was occurring with the Coyotes at the time when it comes to the possession adjustments and lack of a appropriate enviornment. “Stability is critical,” he mentioned, “and we have that here.”

“I’ve made decisions I’m proud of, and I’ve made mistakes I’ve learned from,” Chayka mentioned in a ready assertion when he was launched by Pelley. “I’m human. I own all of it, and I’m better because of it.”

The reality the new Leafs GM comes from an analytics background is probably going a part of the pile-on from exterior, too, as that is not uncommon from the old-school crowd — though the hiring of New Jersey Devils GM Sunny Mehta, additionally analytics-minded, final month wasn’t acquired this manner in any respect.

You mix all of that in the league’s greatest, hottest market, and it has the makings of a potential sideshow.

So, along with Chayka’s relative inexperience and poor observe document as a GM, you have got this different, uncommon problem layered on high, the place few individuals round the league are anxious to present him a second probability. This is the pool of execs he goes to wish to work with to tug off trades and doubtlessly rent assist from, assuming he’s going to show over a few of Toronto’s entrance workplace in the coming months. And he might want to win over gamers and their brokers, too, if the Leafs are going so as to add in free company or signal gamers to contract extensions.

“We’re not worried about the outside,” Chayka advised Friedman when requested about his repute serving as an obstacle to success. “We’re going to focus on our team and what we can control. In terms of me personally, I’ve always tried to act as professionally as I can, be a good communicator, work with people to understand what they’re looking to do in terms of transactions, and I think if I can continue to do that my history has been I’ve been able to make good transactions for the team. That’s my focus.”

Make no mistake, this was a strange hire by MLSE for a variety of causes, together with the indisputable fact that Mats Sundin is alongside for the trip in his first-ever administration position with an NHL staff. (If anybody acquired themselves nicely on Monday, it was the former captain.) But the stress on Chayka and the Leafs goes to be dialed as much as a degree nicely past something he confronted in Arizona, together with his friends in govt roles and the media all in search of the first indicators of failure.

The deck was all the time going to be stacked in opposition to anybody who took on this position given the state of the roster and possession’s insistence on turning issues round shortly, one thing I consider will be exceptionally difficult. But Monday’s information convention highlighted a few extra hurdles and the intense skepticism the Leafs are going to face going ahead.

Numerous the consideration could also be on Chayka and his previous proper now, but when this goes sideways in Toronto, it is in the end not going to be on him. It’ll be on a corporation that has been adrift for a whereas now, one which seems caught off guard each time there’s criticism and struggles to explain its actionseven relating to one thing as important as why it made this rent.

None of it appears like a recipe for fulfillment. Only extra chaos.