The Maple Leafs making Mats Sundin vice president perfectly protects John Chayka from the local media
Photo credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA Today Sports (left), Third Eye Blind (right)
Mats Sundin joining the Leafs front office protects the team from some uncomfortable truths.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are close to potentially adding a team legend in Mats Sundin, a move that has generated buzz over the prospect, but a bigger question may hang over Sundin's arrival.
The Leafs all time points leader, Toronto is reportedly expected to hire Mats Sundin as the team's Vice President of Hockey Operations, along with former GM John Chayka as general manager, according to multiple reports.
But while the hiring of Sundin is one that is viewed as the return of a Leafs legend, Sundin becomes a distraction from a real concern over Toronto's GM search.
Sundin's popularity gives Chayka cover from the questions that have followed him since Arizona
The search for a general manager has been an uncertain one, and likely adding a wild card in John Chayka brings in the question if Sundin is brought in to help the team, or if he's an empty title to deflect questions on Chayka's record.
Hired as the league's youngest GM and viewed as an analytical savant at 26, Chayka hasn't been hired by an NHL team since being suspended by the league for speaking to rival teams regarding a role.
For someone breaking a rule for other opportunities, those chances never came for Chayka since his resignation in 2020, and it's a wonder as to why.
Another question comes as former NHLer and current analyst Jay Rosehill discussed his personal negative experience with Chayka as GM.
Sundin looks as though he's a shield to deflect from questions about Chayka and his results not matching his reputation, along with questions over how Chayka emerged as the Leafs top GM candidate with over a decade out of hockey.
Chayka brings the analytics obsession Pelley wanted but his decade away from hockey is the question nobody is answering
The hiring of Chayka has clear positives that make it evident why MLSE wants the 36-year-old. Analytics have been an integral part of the Leafs GM search, and Chayka knows his way around the data.
It's clear the logic of Chayka, with the uncertainty coming with the question of "why now" that Chayka is close to a return, and why.
After the New Jersey Devils swooped in to nab their former data man Sunny Mehta before he could be pursued by Toronto, it could be the Leafs went all in on the next best thing analytics wise.
Despite the confusion of the GM hiring process, Toronto appears a step closer to their analytical oriented head of the management group, as Keith Pelley wanted.
The prospective hiring of Mats Sundin lends a big name to take the headlines off of John Chayka, but it's the potential new GM, not Sundin, needing to prove his worth for Leafs ownership.
Also read on Hockey Patrol :
Matthews and Nylander demanded dogs up front and the Sharks have exactly the player they had in mind
Matthews and Nylander demanded dogs up front and the Sharks have exactly the player they had in mind
Previously on Hockey Patrol