John Chayka Among Candidates for Penguins GM Job
John Chayka has emerged as a potential option for the Pittsburgh Penguins front office.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are nearing a month removed from firing Ron Hextall, Brian Burke, and Chris Pryor from their duties in the front office.
As that month has gone on, there hasn’t been much noise regarding Fenway Sports Group (FSG) and their search for a new front office staff for the Penguins.
A lot of talk has been centered around the idea of FSG shooting for Kyle Dubas; some have speculated that they want to speak with Stan Bowman.
According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the Penguins are nearing the end of an opening round of interviews, and he had some names that were possibly in the mix.
No, Dubas and Bowman were not on Seravalli’s list, but even he said it was incomplete.
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The names that were read off, however, consisted of Marc Bergevin, Jason Botterill, John Chayka, Mathieu Darche, and Ryan Martin.
Seravalli also noted that the Penguins will likely roll with a similar front office structure that they had with Hextall and Burke; different personnel for the GM and president.
It isn’t clear what name was interviewing for what position, but some of those names follow the trend of possibilities.
Darche is a dark horse in the race for Penguins' GM but has a good reputation; he helped build the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning as their president of hockey operations.
Martin was recently named the assistant general manager of the New York Rangers and that's a franchise who might see a fair bit of change this offseason.
Chayka is a 33-year-old former general manager of the Arizona Coyotes, and was the youngest in NHL history at the time of his hire.
When the Coyotes hired named him GM in 2016, he was only 26-years-old; the years that followed were fantastic from the Coyotes point of view.
The Coyotes posted a 131-147-38 record during his four years in charge and only reached the postseason one time.
Before the start of the 2020 NHL Playoffs, which the Coyotes participated in, Chayka resigned from his position.
In early late January of 2021, Chayka was suspended from working within the NHL for the remainder of the calendar year for multiple reasons.
One being that Chayka pursued opportunities with other NHL clubs while still under contract with the Coyotes; Chayka had three years remaining on his contract when he resigned.
It was later revealed that Chayka and the Coyotes held a private scouting combine for draft prospects.
The Coyotes were penalized and forced to forfeit a second-round draft pick in 2020 and a first in 2021.
Chayka is an interesting name for the Penguins to have focus on, but could be an interesting direction for the team to take.
The partnership may have ended on bad terms between Chayka and the Coyotes, but perhaps a new viewpoint could rejuvenate his ability as a leader.
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