Arizona Coyotes: After One Offseason, In John Chayka We Trust
Arizona Coyotes General Manager John Chayka has been creative and bold in his first offseason running the franchise’s first office.
Skepticism ruled the day when the Arizona Coyotes named John Chayka their newest general manager.
Television personalities panned the move, fans worried about his age and lack of experience, and a franchise desperate for a home run was thought to have popped out to left field.
Chayka seemed unfazed by the hand-wringing.
“It’s a result-oriented business, and my success will be based off our team’s success,” Chayka said.
“If we win on the ice, then it will be a success. If we lose, then it didn’t work out. That’s whether I’m 60 and played in the NHL and was a development coach or an assistant coach in the American league, or whatever the conventional path to the NHL is.”
That’s the key to this outside-the-box hiring.
Teams habitually return to the well for coaching and general manager candidates.
A coach washes out in Anaheim, he ends up in Toronto. He washes out in Toronto, he ends up back in Anaheim.
The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. Despite that common adage, NHL teams — and really, all of the four major North American sports — repeat the same steps ad nauseam.
The Arizona Coyotes ownership have tried it the traditional way.
Anthony LeBlanc and company can explore the past twenty years of desert hockey to observe the pitfalls of this approach. There were good moments, to be sure, but they were far too infrequent to make any headway.
Owning a National Hockey League franchise in a non-traditional market is not about trying to fit in.
It’s about standing out and making a mark. It’s about taking your perceived negatives and turning them into strengths.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have developed a dynamite roster full of homegrown stars to create a raucous fan base in Florida. The Nashville Predators have provided an over-the-top in-game experience to hook fans while they pieced together one of the most interesting rosters in the NHL.
For a hockey franchise in Arizona, there must also be a draw that sets them apart.
John Chayka is not that draw, but he seems to understand how to steer the franchise to that point.
After acquiring Lawson Crouse, Chayka told reporters, “We’re spending to the cap and we’re acquiring young players like Jakob Chychrun and Lawson Crouse that we feel can be core pieces. That’s what we’re after. As this stage of our organization right now we’re still trying to collect and identify and develop core pieces.”
Chayka understands that Dylan Strome, Christian Dvorak, and Brendan Perlini are stellar prospects.
He’s also identified correctly that not every single one of those names is likely to make a high level impact in the NHL. That’s statistically unlikely. Recognizing that, he’s went out and acquired more prospects like Jakob Chychrun and Lawson Crouse to increase the odds.
As if it were a raffle, Chayka has purchased the majority of the tickets and the odds are increasingly in their favor. All it cost them was some cap space that they were unlikely to use and a few draft picks. That cost is set against the potential return of several top level players.
John Chayka is not a genius. The man is a gambler, albeit a calculated one.
Chayka’s not betting the farm to win back $100 at a poker table. He’s giving up surplus assets for the chance to win someone else’s farm. And every time he does it the odds only increase.
This franchise has been either unwilling or unable to exploit the unique resources available to it in it’s previous twenty years in operation.
Herb Brooks once told a ragtag group of hockey players that they could shock the world. He said, “This is your time. Their time is done. It’s over.”
John Chakya isn’t worried about the past. He’s forward thinking and making bold moves for the future. He knows that the Coyotes’ time is imminent.
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This approach is a refreshing change of course from the tentative, reactive behavior that has governed the Arizona Coyotes organization previously.
In Chayka we trust.