The Arizona Coyotes made a clear philosophical pivot on April 10 when they fired Don Maloney, who had been the team's general manager since 2007.
But the real shake-up came a few weeks later, when Arizona unveiled a reconfigured front office built in part around John Chayka, the 26-year-old analytics whiz who graduated from the honors business administration program at Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, two years ago.
Chayka is 13 years younger than the Coyotes' captain, Shane Doan.
It was a bold move. But the youngest GM in NHL history isn't concerned about skeptics.
"It's a result-oriented business, and my success will be based off our team's success," Chayka said. "If we win on the ice, then it will be a success. If we lose, then it didn't work out. That's whether I'm 60 and played in the NHL and was a development coach or an assistant coach in the American league, or whatever the conventional path to the NHL is. I'm not exactly sure what that would be. I'm comfortable with where I'm at."
The Coyotes didn't hand the keys to the former Junior A hockey player and underage entrepreneur. Longtime coach Dave Tippett took on the additional role of executive vice president of hockey operations, while Gary Drummond, an energy industry veteran in Saskatchewan and member of the team's ownership group, is now the president of hockey operations. Tippett, who will step back to focus on coaching once the season starts, said the team plans to hire another experienced NHL executive.
But the shake-up -- before Chayka, the youngest GM in NHL history was Gord Stellick, who was 30 when he was hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in April 1988 -- certainly got the attention of several former GMs.
"Times change, I guess," said former Los Angeles Kings general manager Rogie Vachon, who was a former NHL goalie but who had no managerial experience when he was hired by L.A. in 1984 at age 38. "I don't know if it's going to work out or not, but it's very unusual. I was totally surprised that someone would hire a 26-year-old with no experience."
Former Minnesota North Stars GM Lou Nanne said Chayka will have his work cut out for him.
"I respect Don Maloney a hell of a lot. He did a great job there with the situation he had to work with," said Nanne. "This guy has huge shoes to fill. I wish him well."
Vachon and Nanne both expressed fondness for Chayka based on what they'd seen of him. But one former general manager took issue with the move.
"If you look historically at hiring practices over the last 30 years, whenever teams have gone way outside the box and done things that are completely unorthodox, it hasn't worked," said Neil Smith, who was 40 when he helped lead the New York Rangers to the Stanley Cup in 1994. Smith cited examples of former players Mel Bridgman and Tony Esposito who were thrust into the GM's chair without having managerial experience.
"You can't walk into any job without any experience and be successful," Smith said. "It's OK if you want to hire this young man and make him executive director of player personnel. But you give him the title of GM? You really think he should have the same title as Sam Pollock or Bill Torrey or Cliff Fletcher?"
Chayka knows the best response to his critics is to take a Coyotes team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2012 and turn it into a winner. He already has the backing of one of the game's most respected coaches.
"If I didn't believe in the things he was doing to help us, then I wouldn't be here," said Tippett. "I believe he is a guy who can help us build a championship team. The knowledge he has brought in to evaluate the game is all stuff I'm very interested in. It will be a great partnership."
Chayka's approach to that partnership won't draw strictly on sports industry conventions.
"If you just look at the business world, there is a CEO for a reason. Then there is a CFO and CMO and COO and all different levels of specialization and specificity," said Chayka. "I think it's just really finding the best practices from all other industries and seeing if it works in hockey."
The business acumen Chayka established as a teenager is what set him apart when the Coyotes hired him as their assistant general manager in 2015. That meteoric rise in business could eventually alter how NHL teams hire management.
"You learn a lot of lessons when you're in a startup. It's less about structure and more about what it takes to be successful," Chayka said. "With Stathletes, it was a groupthink. It was everyone working together and communicating well."
Stathletes would be the St. Catharines, Ontario-based hockey-analytics company Chayka launched as a teenager. What started as a two-man operation with fellow Ivey student Neil Lane today employs 55 people, almost 40 of whom are strictly responsible for analyzing video and collecting data. Since Chayka was named Coyotes GM, Lane estimates the company has received a résumé from a prospective employee every three minutes.
Launched while Lane was earning his MBA and Chayka was closing out a playing career he admits "wasn't exactly storied," Stathletes soon grew to include Chayka's sister, Meghan, and father, Terry, who both helped log data manually into proprietary software. While spending countless hours manually logging data from hockey games, Chayka dreamed of becoming an NHL GM.
"It was always the conversation. He's always wanted to be running an NHL team," said Lane, the company's chief executive officer. "He's done everything possible to achieve that goal. Obviously he's done it faster than anyone else in history."
Chayka's fascination with analyzing video, something he began doing at age 8, inspired a business plan that was honored in national college business competitions. The company even earned Lane an entrepreneurial scholarship and a then-19-year-old Chayka a meeting with legendary coach Scotty Bowman.
"It was less of a discussion and more of him talking and me listening," Chayka admitted.
Chayka dedicated himself entirely to school and his business after selling his share in the National Hockey Institute, a development camp he founded as an 18-year-old. NHL job offers started to come for him as Stathletes built its client base. (The Vancouver Canucks hired Stathletes for three years to provide statistical analysis before Chayka was hired by the Coyotes.) Chayka turned them down, waiting for just the right opportunity to fulfill his NHL dreams.
Now he has found it, along with a collection of naysayers and supporters. But the youngest GM in NHL history is focusing on his work in Arizona and not his historic rise.
"At times I felt it was a real possibility, but to sit here and say I expected this to happen at this point would be a lie," Chayka said. "It's good timing and the right situation and the right people. Hopefully it ends up on the winning side of the ledger."