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The Official Post-Bitch 2025-26 Regular Season Thread

MindzEye said:
Oh...and firing Berube is probably the first test of whether or not he's shit. If he doesn't take one look at our analytics performance and fire Berube, that's a huge red flag.
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Pretty much this.

Berube has to go, then as much of the players that were brought in as Berube style guys, the Joshua/Jarnkrok type shit.

Domi might be a bit harder to dump, but he's useless too
 
If Chayka performed a similar body of work in Toronto as he did in Phoenix, the team would be markedly improved compared to what we just witnessed with pizza boy. Phoenix didn't have Matthews, Nylander, Knies, Tavares (they had Keller, and he didn't really break out till after Chayka left) - this is where they fell short. The failure wasn't really about what Chayka did to trim around the edges; they just didn't have an actual core of elite talent and never obtained any because they either traded their 1sts due to ownership pressure or refused to bottom out completely and picked outside the top 4 every single year.
 
MyNameIsJonas said:
If Sundin was strictly a PR hire there wouldn't be this much hullaballoo about what role he'd be serving. They clearly value whatever it is he's pitching, but Chayka sort of feels like " most expereienced nerd" they can find.

Like, this isnt Tre, or a disaster hire, probably, but im just not sure how you can look at his Zona tenure and be wowed.
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Never under-estimate the power of aura. Sundin has aura and commands respect. The organization wants to be respected and he ticks that box. They also want to be data-driven and they feel Chayka ticks that box. It all makes sense to me. And we can guess and speculate about how it goes, but none of us actually know. Entirely new situations for both of these individuals.
 
Chayka's just an unknown to me. Judging him on arizona is really hard.

I don’t think we quite understand how low the budget was in arizona. Hockey ops was literally just chayka and his laptop. That includes scouting. Never mind money for an actual analytics department or free agents (or anything else that would entice a free agent).

Obviously there's nothing great about his performance there but in general he collected the right kind of talent imo:

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I dont think anyone will compare Chayka to Tre, or any of the terrible retread choices that they clearly didnt interview, but i personally would have preferred Gillis or White/Gold.
 
MyNameIsJonas said:
I dont think anyone will compare Chayka to Tre, or any of the terrible retread choices that they clearly didnt interview, but i personally would have preferred Gillis or White/Gold.
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Gillis was my top choice in the Sundin role, but White is pure traditionalist/vibes dude and tbh largely a mystery box other than that - the only thing we know about him is that he works for a good team in a role with minimal power, is that enough to hire him? And Gold is a pure mystery box. He sounds good and well educated and well Jewish on paper but how would he be as GM? No clue.

Obviously the dream team for me was Gillis/Mehta but Mehta wasn't coming here. Of the available options beyond Mehta for GM, it was a big bag of unknowns, so I can't say Chayka was very far down the list for me, fully knowing that the Leafs are well equipped with an analytics department that he will obviously use more than a White type.
 
Chayka kept longterm coach tippett for one season.

He then hired Rick Tocchet for the rest of his tenure. Tocchet was let go a year after Chayka left.

Tocchet was hired by the canucks midseasln the next year and turned them right around. The next year they had their best season by far in like 15yrs and finished 1st in the Pathific (jack adams winner). Dropped back down to middle of the pack the next season and he was fired. Now this year without him they fell all the way down to the very bottom.

Meanwhile, the Flyers finished last in the East and 4th worst overall last year, and then hired tocchet this year and have had their best season in years tied for 10th overall.

So, seems like the one coach he hired is pretty good.
 
One hilarious thing about how this has all unfolded is how Tre basically just disappeared into the night and never had to answer for any of the terrible moves he made as GM (and especially so this trade deadline). Bail out, disappear for a month and the next thing we know he's GMing the national team.
 
Feyd said:
One hilarious thing about how this has all unfolded is how Tre basically just disappeared into the night and never had to answer for any of the terrible moves he made as GM (and especially so this trade deadline). Bail out, disappear for a month and the next thing we know he's GMing the national team.
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Failson activities. They never stick around to face the music. On to the next failure.
 
zeke said:
wait are you now saying they are intentionally hiring a pig they think needs lipstick?

along with your american politics takes you've become a hellacynic in your dotage!
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I don’t think Pelley personally believes that about Chayka. If he’s ready to give him the job, I’m sure Chayka came in and wowed him with his fluency in Rogers corporate doublespeak to the point where Pelley thinks he’s a wunderkind.

But at the same time, I’m sure that Pelley realizes that most Leaf fans don’t have his own staggering intellect and will look at unimportant things like Chayka’s track record, experience and him costing his team multiple high draft picks and getting sanctioned by the league in his last gig. So he needs something to sell Chayka to the filthy uneducated plebs, and that’s Mats.
 
MindzEye said:
No Futa pls. I listened to him on a podcast after he was last mentioned here and he's everything we don't want. Pure old boys club.
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Of the supposed final 3 candidates, I would have been pretty disappointed if they didn't go with Chayka.

A little surprised they didn't give more serious consideration to Barnes or Dellow, but I am relieved they stuck with a "data" guy over the other 2.
 
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