John Chayka is still John Chayka

[TheLegend]

I don't think his trades have been bad yet.

Just wait.........

 

[Leafs87]

Just a reminder Woll can’t stay healthy, finished last year sub 900 save percent and pulled out of game 7 a few years ago against Boston for undisclosed reasons

 

[TheLegend]

Guys.....

All I'm going to say is this....

There was a reason why Dave Tippett was eventually made both the head coach AND VP of hockey ops in Arizona, putting him over Chayka.

Y'all going to have to find out for yourselves.

 

[ToDavid]

He traded a backup goalie and hired a long time assistant/recent HC as HC. I think we’ll live.

 

[Albz]

The amount of trash leafs threads on here is hilarious living rent free

 

[dubey]

He traded a backup goalie and hired a long time assistant/recent HC as HC. I think we’ll live.

Nooooooo don't trade your career .906 goalie

lmao

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

"Arizona is still Arizona"

Did they lose their team? Do people watch teams other than the Leafs?

 

[Leaf Fans]

Just wait.........

Sure, there will be good ones, bad ones too

 

[Kcoyote3]

The Woll trade was good

 

[Deranged Oreo]

He hasn’t really done anything poorly, yet. Although he will need some slam dunks for people to change their opinions of him.

 

[Waltz With Brashear]

Seems to be a lot of misconceptions about how good Woll is. To me it seemed like a wash plus a pick.

 

[joestevens29]

Coaching hire was horrible. However woll trade was good

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Just a reminder Woll can’t stay healthy, finished last year sub 900 save percent and pulled out of game 7 a few years ago against Boston for undisclosed reasons

How has Stolarz done?
I see he’s cracked 30 games once in his career and had a .893 save percentage in his 26 games last year.

 

[leafsfan5]

How has Stolarz done?
I see he’s cracked 30 games once in his career and had a .893 save percentage in his 26 games last year.

Neither are our longterm options, we're building towards Hildeby/Akhtayamov

Chayka saw two injury proned goalies who can be good when healthy. He knew one has little value (Stolarz) while the other could get something back. Considering neither are in our longterm plans, he dealt the latter for value while keeping the former as a one-year stopgap while AA gets ready

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Neither are our longterm options, we're building towards Hildeby/Akhtayamov

Chayka saw two injury proned goalies who can be good when healthy. He knew one has little value (Stolarz) while the other could get something back. Considering neither are in our longterm plans, he dealt the latter for value while keeping the former as a one-year stopgap while AA gets ready

Hildeby maybe. Need a larger sample size. I’d wait until AA plays in the NHL. Arturs Silovs won the Calder Cup and was the MVP as well for the Abbotsford Canucks but he’s not a great nhl goalie.
Not saying those two goalies won’t be really good but I’d need to see more nhl games.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

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

"Arizona is still Arizona"

Which was the 2nd franchise, or am I really.missing something?

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

Meh he will probably do fine tbh.

 

[TotalHomer]

Neither are our longterm options, we're building towards Hildeby/Akhtayamov

Chayka saw two injury proned goalies who can be good when healthy. He knew one has little value (Stolarz) while the other could get something back. Considering neither are in our longterm plans, he dealt the latter for value while keeping the former as a one-year stopgap while AA gets ready

#foreverbuild

 

[colchar]

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

Trading Woll was not inexplicable.

And although I don't love the hiring of Hiller, I have seen some reasonable arguments in support of the move so might be willing to give him a chance.

 

[colchar]

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.

Stop being so reasonable, that isn't what is called for here.

Mod

 

[TheLegend]

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

"Arizona is still Arizona"

And 43 others will probably do one before you can even get the chance.

 

[PainForShane]

And 43 others will probably do one before you can even get the chance.

All good. You have to appreciate a good troll, no issues with that post. As long as it's actual humor (which this one was), no issues at all from my end. And I'm sure some saw my initial thread as a troll attempt -- I'm guessing you and @Summer Rose (and any other Zona fan) know it wasn't but I can see how it might be perceived that way esp because I haven't posted much recently. Hard to get tone across via these msg boards.

Just between us (and prob Summer), imo as a franchise we deserved all the shit we got, we were that bad for decades. But I think it's absolutely wild that all these ppl went from "AZ is so pathetic the team doesn't deserve to exist" to "let's ignore Chayka's role in Arizona dysfunction and give him a chance." Which is understandable I guess (esp if you're a fan of the Leafs) but like... for anyone even close to neutral what the actual f***.

***

For context on this, I'd bet a lot of money Chayka will continue to do inexplicable shit like Hiller and trading Woll for Ersson and whatever else he'll do. To Leafs fans defending the trade as a way to alleviate the logjam in goal, he picked up a goalie so he didn't actually solve that problem, but now instead of Woll you have Ersson taking up a spot, who is worse.

My guess is for most of the year Chayka will deserve a "wtf is he doing" thread in the mains and I wanted to do my part to remind ppl he did this same shit for however long in the desert. Pelley (and everyone else) should've known better, what a ridiculous hire. At least Steve Simmons had the balls to call out how stupid this hire was. I don't know much about Steve Simmons, but credit to him while everyone else keeps pretending the emporer actually has clothes

Meanwhile, I still don't eat at Wendy's. Luckily we have In N Out in the Valley. Double doubles are quite amazing