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John Chayka is still John Chayka

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PainForShane

PainForShane

formerly surfshop
Dec 24, 2019
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Hello --

So far it's the first offseason of John Chayka and his first two moves are inexplicably trading Woll and inexplicably hiring Jim Hiller as head coach. Or maybe we could start with Keith Pelley and the Leafs inexplicably hiring John Chayka as GM in the first place.

I was a Yotes fan for many years and Chayka did things like this constantly during his tenure there, not to mention his off the board drafting of guys like Hayton, trading up for Soderstrom so he could pass on Caufield etc. After his performance in AZ I'm truly surprised that he got another job in the league, let alone as GM of the Leafs.

Anyway, to me this guy seems like he's still the same. Who would've thought all those in between years running Wendy's franchises wouldn't actually make him a better GM
 
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People are acting like Chayka has drowned and doomed the Leafs already, its actually insane. Maybe he will, who knows but he hasn't done anything like that so far. Theres only been a handful of moves made thus far. Lets wait for the end of summer if not December to get a better look.
 
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HavocWreaker said:
People are acting like Chayka has drowned and doomed the Leafs already, its actually insane. Maybe he will, who knows but he hasn't done anything like that so far. Theres only been a handful of moves made thus far. Lets wait for the end of summer if not December to get a better look.
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Is the coach not one of the biggest moves that will happen this off-season? Leafs fans are all acting like Hiller is a good choice lmao. the guy just got fired 3.5 months ago from his first HC job. The Kings were so painful to watch and he was the coach.
 
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The Leafs not embracing a rebuild is the inexplicable part. I understand that you don't have your next two 1sts, but you have premium assets that you can turn into 1sts. Build around McKenna.
 
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MiscBrah said:
Is the coach not one of the biggest moves that will happen this off-season? Leafs fans are all acting like Hiller is a good choice lmao. the guy just got fired 3.5 months ago from his first HC job. The Kings were so painful to watch and he was the coach.
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And there are no results to speak of from that move. We dont know how Hiller x Leafs in the upcoming season are doing right now. Lets see some more moves or some results from the season before completely throwing him under the bus. Im not even advocating for Chayka and his moves per se. All im saying is its so damn early.
 
HavocWreaker said:
And there are no results to speak of from that move. We dont know how Hiller x Leafs in the upcoming season are doing right now. Lets see some more moves or some results from the season before completely throwing him under the bus. Im not even advocating for Chayka and his moves per se. All im saying is its so damn early.
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If Treliving had hired Hiller, people would have shredded him and called for him to be fired, but because it's Chayka it's "let's wait and see". Like somehow Chayka has some magical ball that shows him what the future holds. It's hilarious
 
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Vegaspunk said:
They literally had to trade one of their goalies or risk losing Hildeby on waivers for nothing and the Stolarz contract sucks so it was always going to be Woll going out the door

Hiller is a baffling hire but no one would be hating on the Woll move if it was made by like Jason Botterill
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Stolarz could've been waived as a worst case scenario. Theres no reason to dump the best goalie for such a pittance
 
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HavocWreaker said:
And there are no results to speak of from that move. We dont know how Hiller x Leafs in the upcoming season are doing right now. Lets see some more moves or some results from the season before completely throwing him under the bus. Im not even advocating for Chayka and his moves per se. All im saying is its so damn early.
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My point is Chayka already has a track record. He was a GM for multiple years, and in AZ his proactive rebuild / roster construction was so bad the next GM literally sold almost everyone on the team for draft picks once he had time to observe what was happening. And now Utah is respectable on the ice (and I'd argue they have a strong future) because the GM after Chayka was allowed to completely blow up Chayka's roster.

No worries if you want to wait to see, and obv give the new guy a chance esp if you're a fan of the team. No issues at all with that. All I'm saying is from my point of view his moves look exactly the same as they did when he was with Arizona
 
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MiscBrah said:
If Treliving had hired Hiller, people would have shredded him and called for him to be fired, but because it's Chayka it's "let's wait and see". Like somehow Chayka has some magical ball that shows him what the future holds. It's hilarious
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You're proving my point. Chayka is new and has made so few moves. And yeah no one has a magical ball. For everyone shitting on Chayka you would think they're the ones with the magical ball. The fact is no one has it so people should stop pretending to know best.
 
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Too soon to say. I do think he traded the wrong goalie though as Woll is younger and averaged 40 games the last 2 years while Stolarz at 32 has only cracked 30 games once. A Hildeby/Woll tandem seems like the safer and more logical move. That said, it’s not a huge trade and there’s still some variables before we can say whether it was good or bad.
I’m also not a fan of the Hiller hire as I think the Leafs perform better with a more offensive minded coach. Hiller claims he will change his style but the jury is still out on that.
 
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Out of goalies with 20+ games played, this is the best GSAx/60 each of the last 3 years.

2025-26: Hildeby
2024-25: Stolarz
2023-24: Stolarz

I personally think Hildeby was a fluke, so I think he will top out as a backup goalie. He just didn't look steady, and a lot of his saves looked "lucky".

But pretending like Stolarz was trash this entire time is crazy. Stolarz has been great, but injured.

Not saying Stolarz will bounce back for sure, but there is no guarantee Woll would either, and Stolarz has been the better goalie.

They moved someone from a crowded spot on the team, got younger, filled a need (PMD), and improved their D, all while picking up a 3rd and clearing cap.

I'll take that trade.
 
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I wasn't a fan of the Woll trade, but can understand they needed to move on from one of their goalies and Stolarz would have next to no value. While they've been good in the AHL neither Hildeby or AA have the kind of can't miss pedigree that would have teams lining up to get into a bidding war. That said, as unreliable as Woll has been relative to the league, he's probably the most reliable relative to the Leafs and for a team trying to re-tool and make the playoffs it seems a counterintuitive choice to trade him. I'm probably being pretty contradictory here in that I get it, but also I don't when it comes to Woll.

Not a fan of the Hiller decision at all. Doesn't make a ton of sense to me with better options out there. But now that it's done, I'm not going to harp on it to harp on it and will see how things go once the puck drops.
 
Vegaspunk said:
They literally had to trade one of their goalies or risk losing Hildeby on waivers for nothing and the Stolarz contract sucks so it was always going to be Woll going out the door

Hiller is a baffling hire but no one would be hating on the Woll move if it was made by like Jason Botterill
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You don't trade a goalie nicknamed the WALL and keep a Hildeby.

Hildeby is the name of a slow, Saskatchewan-born, stay-at-home, journeyman defenseman.
 
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this is even more fitting now...

JediOrderPizza

Post in thread 'Maple Leafs to hire John Chayka and Mats Sundin to head hockey operations'

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