Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Chayka has an important decision to make this off-season, replacing Craig Berube as the team's head coach. Here's a look at Chayka's history in the NHL with hiring and firing NHL bench bosses
Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Chayka has a massive decision to make this off-season. Now that Craig Berube has been relieved of his duties as the Maple Leafs head coach, the vacant role must be filled with careful consideration.
With Chayka's history with the Arizona Coyotes, he has only ever hired one coach in his NHL career as a GM, and on the other hand, has only fired one head coach too.
Chayka was officially named the GM of the Coyotes franchise beginning in 2016-17. When he stepped in, the coach of Arizona at the time was Dave Tippett.
Tippettt was entering his eighth season as the bench boss of the Coyotes, but after finishing that campaign with a 30-42-10 record, Chayka fired Tippett and got the opportunity to bring in his own head coach.
Chayka went on to hire Rick Tocchett, and he went on to be an excellent coach later in his career, but for his tenure with the Coyotes, it was his first NHL head-coaching stint since 2009-10 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tocchett coached the Coyotes for four full seasons, with the final two being shortened due to COVID-19. In his first three years there, the team's record improved steadily. Eventually, Arizona was able to make it through the qualifying round in 2019-20 and got a sniff of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
They were eliminated in the first round of the post-season by the Colorado Avalanche in five games. His next season with the Coyotes would be his last, but Chayka was no longer a part of the franchise by that point.
At any rate, Tocchet would go on to join the Vancouver Canucks in 2022-23 and went on to win the Jack Adams Trophy in 2023-24. So while he didn't make a massive impact for the Coyotes, as a coach in general, Tocchet was a good hire.
As for the dismissal of Tippett, he went on to coach the Edmonton Oilers for parts of three years beginning in 2019-20. He led his team to two playoff campaigns, but managed to earn just one victory in both post-seasons combined.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.