John Chayka, Scott White remain finalists for Leafs GM, Ryan Martin eliminated

“I have more clarity since our last podcast: I said the finalists were Ryan Martin from the Rangers, Scott White from the Dallas Stars and either John Chayka or Evan Gold from the Bruins. I wasn’t sure about the third one. I now believe it was Chayka. It was Chayka, Martin and White. And in addition, Kyle, what I heard they were all invited back to Toronto on Tuesday for in-person interviews, and they were all told there was a possibility that a favourite may be invited to stay and meet with the head of Rogers, Edward Rogers, on Wednesday, and could advance to a potential final stage, where if you could impress the owner of Rogers, then you could become the next general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

“From what I understand, that second phase didn’t happen for any of the candidates. I’m told Ryan Martin from the Rangers was informed sometime after that meeting that even though he had a couple of great interviews and they were impressed, he wouldn’t be advancing further and that he wouldn’t be the next GM. Martin has interviewed in Nashville. We’ll see how he does in these other searches. He did nothing to hurt himself here. They ultimately moved on, which leaves White and Chayka.”

“The thing that’s most interesting about that is that they’re very different candidates, almost polar opposites: age, background, expertise, experience, everything about them is almost completely different. I don’t know if you could find two different people if you tried.”

White is the director of hockey operations for the Dallas Stars, with a stellar reputation. Prior to signing his extension with the Stars, Jim Nill was thought to be the Leafs’ dream candidate for president of hockey operations.

Chayka previously served as the general manager of the-then Arizona Coyotes. Friedman stated that he believes Chayka is the slight favourite at this stage.

“I don’t know how I would term it. Obviously, they haven’t gone to the final meeting, the Edward Rogers stage. Maybe you want to call it a slight pause. But what I do think is they’re doing more due diligence.”

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