In the days prior to Sunday’s expected announcement, at least one team raised a tampering concern with the NHL as incoming Toronto Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka began to fill out his staff, multiple sources told Hockey 24/7.
The team expressed concern to the NHL that employees under contract may have been contacted without proper permission. Sources said the NHL looked into the inquiry and found the claim to be unsubstantiated.
The NHL informed Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment CEO Keith Pelley of the inquiry. The league was also then in contact with Pelley after to let him know that it had been satisfied with the information provided.
A Maple Leafs spokesperson declined to comment when reached on Sunday but acknowledged the interaction with the league.
Chayka, 36, is set to be introduced as the Maple Leafs’ 19th general manager on Monday. His hiring was announced on Sunday, alongside franchise icon and Hockey Hall of Famer Mats Sundin, who will assume the title of Senior Executive Advisor in a full-time capacity. The Leafs said Sundin “will serve as a strategic advisor and provide support across hockey operations, with a focus on team culture, player development and leadership support.”
It is Chayka, though, who will reportedly have ultimate say on all hockey operations decisions and report directly to Pelley.
This will mark Chayka’s first foray back into the NHL since resigning as GM of the Arizona Coyotes on July 26, 2020, the day the Coyotes were set to enter the return-to-play bubble in Edmonton during the pandemic.
Chayka was subsequently suspended by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Jan. 25, 2021 for “conduct detrimental to the league and game.” He was barred from working for “any NHL club, in any capacity” for the entirety of 2021 after Bettman ruled that Chayka “breached his obligation” to the Coyotes by reportedly engaging in a job interview with the New Jersey Devils under false pretenses presented to Arizona owner Alex Meruelo.
That suspension was unrelated to a separate NHL investigation in which the NHL stripped Arizona’s 2021 first-round pick and 2020 second-round pick for the Coyotes improperly conducting physical testing of draft-eligible players under Chayka’s watch.
Chayka and Sundin are expected to be the Leafs’ only hires announced on Monday, though there will surely be more, as they reshape the front office.
Sources said the Maple Leafs expressed interest in offering a significant advisory role to one of the prominent candidates reported in the search, but that candidate declined because he did not want to work with Chayka.
Much of the league speculation over the weekend centered on a possible reunion between Chayka and former Coyotes employee Jake Goldberg, now the Los Angeles Kings’ senior director of hockey operations. There was also speculation Chayka intended to pursue Chase Glasberg, Utah’s manager of salary cap and hockey strategy. Glasberg is the son of Neil Glasberg, the agent for coaches and front office executives, who helped the Maple Leafs execute the search that landed on Chayka.
Though unsubstantiated, that the NHL spent time looking into a tampering claim involving the Maple Leafs before Chayka was even announced underlined the suspicion some league counterparts have for him as he resurfaces with an incredible second chance. These are the turbulent currents Chayka must swim against to re-establish the trust necessary to be an effective dealmaker - with both fellow GMs and the league office.
This inquiry also highlights the immense scrutiny that Pelley is set to face, with questions about Chayka’s resume and past clouding his hiring with baggage that no other candidate carried. Chayka is the man Pelley chose to wager the direction of an $8 billion entity on, acknowledging this will be his most consequential hire as CEO of the sport’s crown jewel franchise. Consider this proof it will be nothing if not fascinating.