Arizona GM Chayka continues to make waves in first 3 months
GLENDALE, Ariz. — His time on the ice done, John Chayka would turn to the tape, spending up to 25 hours to break down the game just played.
He tracked every player on the ice, every possession, touch of the puck, calculating the impact of every decision or movement on the ice.
The attention to detail, to making himself and his teammates better, led Chayka to co-found his own hockey analytics company.
Now, it has helped him become the youngest general manager in NHL history, a meteoric rise even he didn’t see coming.
“It would be silly to suggest it wasn’t a little surprising,” said Chayka, named general manager of the Arizona Coyotes May 5.
“It’s like anything in life; good fortune, good timing, a lot of that plays into it. I always just try to better myself every day, learn every day.”
Chayka was like most Canadian kids growing up, playing hockey from a young age on a backyard rink in Jordan Station, Ontario.
He had some skill, too, as a high-scoring winger who was good enough to be an Ontario Hockey League draft pick.
Instead of becoming a pro hockey player, Chayka took a different route to the highest level.
He attended college instead of playing in the OHL and suffered a back injury that ended any chance of a continued playing career.
Chayka liked the analytical aspect of hockey even when he was playing, logging numbers by hand while meticulously going through every play of each game.
When he chose to team up with Neil Lane, a friend with an IT background, Chayka was able to vastly expand the data sets he could analyze.
Chayka and Lane cofounded Stathletes in 2009 and built it up, molding the hockey analytics company to serve the needs of NHL teams and players.
But in 2015, Chayka decided to make a change in his career path.
The business was in good shape and the Coyotes wanted an analytics person, so he joined them as an assistant GM before the 201516 season.
“The company was in a position for the co-founder to step aside and let it grow, so it was good timing for me to do that,” Chayka said.
Timing worked out for Chayka again this spring.
After missing the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, the Coyotes decided to make a major change, firing general manager Don Maloney after nine seasons.
Instead of hiring an established hockey front-office man, the Coyotes decided to take a much bolder route, hiring the then-26 Chayka, making him the youngest general manager in NHL history. Furthermore, he became the first with a primarily analytical background.
“What people are going to find out about John as he becomes more well-known is he’s a very smart guy, a very intelligent guy,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett said.
Those smarts, along with a year of watching the Coyotes day-to-day operations from the inside out, have allowed Chayka to hit the ground sprinting.
Arizona had one of the highest-rated drafts, landing center Clayton Keller and defenseman Jakob Chychurn, players who could contribute quickly.
The Coyotes signed topfour defenseman Alex Goligoski after trading for his rights and added some scoring depth by signing left winger Jamie McGinn, who set career highs in goals and points last season.
Arizona also signed captain and longtime power forward Shane Doan to a one-year deal.
Overall, Chayka has retooled Arizona’s roster by combining his analytical approach with the traditional methods of evaluating players, a move that largely dispelled the notion that he would be a numbersonly general manager.