Is John Chayka now the former Coyotes general manager?
The answer remained unclear on Saturday as the team practiced for the last time before departing on Sunday for Edmonton, the site of its qualifying round series against Nashville.
What is clear is Chayka’s relationship with his employer, owner Alex Meruelo, is fractured and probably beyond repair.
“We have no comment on the situation,” a team spokesman said.
Chayka also is not talking about the situation.
An NHL source confirmed a report by Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet that during the pandemic Meruelo gave Chayka permission to talk to a “third party” about a position.
Chayka signed a contract extension last fall that runs through the 2024 season.
According to the source, when Chayka indicated interest in that opportunity, Meruelo wanted to retract his written permission.
That caused additional damage to his relationship with Chayka.
That played a part in Chayka not being invited to a recent dinner meeting with forward Taylor Hall, an impending unrestricted free agent, the source said.
That meeting included Meruelo, his son Alex Jr., and team President and CEO Xavier Gutierrez.
The group made Taylor a contract offer, and Chayka did not find out about the meeting until a day or two later, the source said.
“Things came to a head when Gutierrez and Meruelo’s son stepped in and began to run hockey operations,” the source said.
Chayka, 31, joined the Coyotes in 2015 and became the youngest general manager in the history of the four major professional North American sports just a year later as a 26-year-old.
Chayka has completely rebuilt the Coyotes roster with only two players remaining on the active roster – Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brad Richardson – since he rose to power in 2016.
Chayka, who became the eighth general manager in Coyotes history, also revamped the team's scouting department and was responsible for drafting some of the Coyotes' top young players such as Clayton Keller and Jakob Chychrun (2016), Barrett Hayton (2018) and Victor Soderstrom (2019).
Chayka used the newfound depth in the Coyotes' prospect pipeline to make major trades for both Phil Kessel and Hall, as well as make under-the-radar acquisitions such as the trade for Darcy Kuemper, who is now the Coyotes' top goaltender, among others.
Chayka hired head coach Rick Tocchet prior to the 2017-18 season and the Coyotes' record has gradually improved in each year since.
This season, the Coyotes were being investigated by the NHL for illegally working out draft-eligible players prior to the NHL Scouting Combine. The league has not yet levied punishment on the Coyotes, who may be liable to pay a hefty fine depending on the severity of the infractions.
The dispute between Chayka and ownership, however, does not involve the investigation, sources said.
Before joining the Coyotes, Chayka co-founded and worked for the statistics firm Stathletes, a statistical analytics outfit that provides insight into player and team tendencies and boasts a number of NHL clubs as current clients
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July 26, 2020 at 03:38AM
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Is John Chayka the former Coyotes general manager? He and the team aren't saying. - AZCentral
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