Breaking: John Chayka has terminated his contract with the Coyotes.

John Chayka has walked out on his team.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 3 years ago
Breaking: John Chayka has terminated his contract with the Coyotes.
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Alright this story just got a lot more spicy.

According to a breaking news report from Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic, Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka is now former Arizona Coyotes general manager John Chayka as of 48 hours ago. Somers, citing a source within the National Hockey League, dropped the bombshell on Sunday afternoon and it included a rather damning quote when it comes to how the Coyotes have managed this entire situation.

"“John Chayka terminated his contract 48 hours ago. I have no idea what the team is doing at this point," said the source as per Somers.

The news comes of the heels of days of rumors surrounding Chayka and his current status within the Coyotes organization, rumors that now appear to have been confirmed at least in part based on this latest report from Somers. We had been hearing tales of Chayka's office being cleaned out and there were rumors that Chayka would not be headed into the bubble with his team, again two things that now seem very plausible given this revelation.

Over the last several days that we have been covering this story we learned that an unknown party, one that may be connected to an NHL franchise, approached the Coyotes roughly six weeks ago during the pandemic to acquire about the availability of Chayka. Inexplicably the Coyotes allowed their general manager to explore that avenue but once they realized that Chayka was leaning towards taking the new offer they tried to clamp down on things. The team reportedly tried to negotiate a transition period with Chayka but those talks fell apart and it looks now like the Coyotes general manager simply made the decision to walk away from the team he has spent the last several years of his life building.

The Coyotes have been a largely dysfunctional franchise so I don't think anyone will blame Chayka for seeking a new opportunity elsewhere, and if anything I think this only serves to once again make the Coyotes look even more dysfunctional. I mean it is not every day that you lose a general manager, one widely considered to be among the brightest young minds in the game, that you had under contract for several more years.

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