John Chayka is still John Chayka

[Kegs]

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.

fireable offence

 

[Hull2Roenick2Kane]

Oh look. Another trash the Leafs thread.

trash and leafs go perfect together.

 

[sampollock]

we all miss leaf75 his videos are riveting

 

[KniesMadeBradyCry]

trash and leafs go perfect together.

Excellent joke.

 

[Sidney the Kidney]

Trading a goalie was inevitable. Stolarz with his injury history and contract has minimal value, so I think many expected Woll to be traded.

The return is a bit surprising but then again isn’t this what Chayka is suppposed to be good at — identifying value and buying low on guys who are currently underutilized?

I’ll reserve judgment til we see how the player works out. Could end up being this summer’s Justin Sourdif trade.

Stolarz would have also been harder to trade because he's got a modified NTC.

 

[Leaf Fans]

If Brad Treliving had done either of these moves people would have shredded him. But because it's the new guy Chayka it's fine lmao.

No, they wouldn't

 

[Summer Rose]

Summer's only just begun...

Have I now?

 

[Metroid]

Who else would John Chayka turn into?
John Chayka will always be John Chayka. What a dumb thread. He's not an X-Men and can shape shit

 

[MCR74]

Oh look. Another trash the Leafs thread.

Remember when the peanut gallery bitched about too many Leaf threads on the main board? I do.

 

[leafsfan5]

He's honestly done fine thus far

The Woll deal made a lot of sense and gives us some badly needed mobility + a d-man who at worse crushes his 3rd pairing minutes

I overreacted to the Hiller news initially, but reading more about it his underlying numbers are very strong and he got the most out of a pretty mediocre LA team. If in the interviews he mentioned he doesn't want to run the 1-3-1 in Toronto and only did it due to LA's personnel, I get why Chayka picked him

 

[Bust]

He's honestly done fine thus far

The Woll deal made a lot of sense and gives us some badly needed mobility + a d-man who at worse crushes his 3rd pairing minutes

I overreacted to the Hiller news initially, but reading more about it his underlying numbers are very strong and he got the most out of a pretty mediocre LA team. If in the interviews he mentioned he doesn't want to run the 1-3-1 in Toronto and only did it due to LA's personnel, I get why Chayka picked him

Hiller should be a breath of fresh air for leaf fans after the season we just witnessed. Berube stubbornly trotted out the same game plan that wasn’t suited for this lineup as he has a “no pivot” attitude when it comes to his system.

A coach that actively employs a game plan that suits his group is solid in my books. It tells me ego doesn’t fuel his decisions and that he’s willing to adapt to his team.

All this crying about his time in LA is funny to me. No one expected LA to do anything in the post season the last few years because the Kings don’t have the horses to win a cup, full stop. Hiller absolutely did everything he could there. Not his fault their GM (similar to the Leafs) can’t build a defence.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Just because you dont understand them doesnt make them inexplicable lol.

Im not even saying these moves will work, but I get the logic around them.

 

[njdevils1982]

As a Star Trek fan, I love this

if you know, you know

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

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.

Strongly agree. Don't see how anyone can get too salty about moving an injury prone goalie and a 3rd pair SAH defensemen. Complete nothing burger.

 

[PainForShane]

I respect you, Shane, and the experience of Yotes fans. We'd be foolish not to hear you out.

But this is a bit premature.

The Joseph Woll trade was most certainly not inexplicable, but rather quite predictable. Toronto had a logjam on their hands with two oft-injured goalies in Woll and Stolarz, and Hildeby requiring waivers this year. We all knew a trade was coming. Most wanted to move Stolarz, but nobody is touching that contract without Toronto attaching an asset. Due to the mistakes of the previous administration, Toronto is not an asset-rich franchise and moving Stolarz would have further depleted us in that regard. Woll made the most sense, and coming off another injury-plagued season, he was never going to have much value on the trade market. A third round pick and a project depth defenseman is the result.

Hiring Jim Hiller isn't a move I like, but I can at least see the reasoning for it (familiarity with the team, has been in the market, and presents himself as an open-minded thinker). Wouldn't have been my choice, feels kind of mediocre, but I think they probably could have done worse.

You may ultimately be right about Chayka, but I think it's far too early to say with any degree of certainty. I admit, John Chayka is not my cup of tea. He opens his mouth and corporate gibberish tumbles out. I can see how he would endear himself to Keith Pelley as I think they have certain similarities. But I still think we need to wait and see here. Edit: I should add, I tend to believe in second chances.

Nothing wrong with believing in second chances and nothing wrong with supporting the GM of your team (or any other team for that matter). That said, all I'm saying is that these types of moves are exactly the types of moves he made over and over with the Yotes, they 100% line up with his track record there.

Regarding the "too many goalies so made sense to trade one" idea -- Ersson came back the other way and is an arb eligible RFA this summer. So Chayka didn't solve the goalie logjam, it's still there just with worse goalies. And this trade also included losing size on the back end, losing a single depth defenseman doesn't matter much but after continuous trades like this the roster ends up being soft and easy to play against just like the Yotes were during most of Chayka's tenure.

Anyway I've shared my thoughts, and we'll see what happens here. Personally I recognize the pattern because I've seen him do this before, but sure maybe it'll be different this time (and I honestly hope so for anyone supporting the Leafs)

 

[DGLeafy]

What will he inexplicably do next!?

*Bam “Whatver the $&@¥ I want!!! “

 

[PistolPete]

Oh look. Another trash the Leafs thread.

The OP said he was a Coyotes fan so sounds more like he just has a dislike for Chayka regardless of who he works for

 

[Antropovsky]

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

Chayka was only GM for Arizona for 4 seasons, and the youngest GM in history at the age of 26 and brought in Keller, Crouse, Schmaltz and Chychrun. Thats a damn good group of young players in 4 years. Not to mention he probably had little help with scouts and management personnel because of Coyotes being flat broke. He also admitted that his duties regarding the state of the team financially was distracting for him which most GMs dont need to deal with.

Other GMs have accomplished alot less with more time.

 

[LOFIN]

I will reserve my judgement until we know:

- If he does pick McKenna or galaxybrains it
- What will the return be like for when he trades Knies

 

[Warden of the North]

Woll trade is completely fine. What are you on about?

Hillier is unexciting, to be certain, but I wouldn't say it's inexplicable. Roy would have been a bigger name, Pavelski would have been intriguing, but it's not like either of them are demonstrably better at this point.

 

[Stewie Griffin]

Gonne quote OP when Arizona gets a third franchise and start a thread

"Arizona is still Arizona"

 

[ToDavid]

If Brad Treliving had done either of these moves people would have shredded him. But because it's the new guy Chayka it's fine lmao.

If Brad Treliving did either of those thing it would have accompanied trading a 1st round pick for another depth player.

Not sure how he would have done it hiring a coach but he would have managed.

 

[PensandCaps]

need more time to judge.

 

[ToDavid]

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.

Didn’t realize we could hire guys who hadn’t been fired yet. Chayka should have hired Cooper. What is he, an idiot?

 

[Antropovsky]

Woll trade is completely fine. What are you on about?

Hillier is unexciting, to be certain, but I wouldn't say it's inexplicable. Roy would have been a bigger name, Pavelski would have been intriguing, but it's not like either of them are demonstrably better at this point.

It makes sense that Chayka wanted a coach who has familiarity with analytics and is known to be open to discussing it with management/coaching staff and has familiarity in Toronto and is liked by players who played on the team when he was here.

Roy has experience but he is a head case. Not good for Toronto. Has butted heads with GMs in the past.

Cassidy is hated by players and who knows if he likes to work with GMs regarding incorporating analytics into strategy/player discussions.

Pavelski has 0 experience and even Brindamour was an assistant for 5 years before becoming a coach.

Tortorella another high risk, high reward type wirh a short shelf life.

What was the better option?