{"id":626578,"date":"2026-05-06T09:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626578\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:30:15","slug":"reporter-rips-maple-leafs-new-con-artist-gm-john-chayka-at-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/626578\/","title":{"rendered":"Reporter rips Maple Leafs’ new ‘con artist’ GM John Chayka at press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a lot to explain to their fan base on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Toronto Sun reporter Steve Simmons went viral for his direct questions to Keith Pelley that left the Maple Leafs President and CEO struggling to find the right words while sitting next to his newly hired general manager John Chayka.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about the due diligence that you did on John prior to hiring him, and now hiring him,\u201d Simmons said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, say three to four days, I\u2019ve been in contact with about 20 people who work in the National Hockey League, many of whom are prominent names that we all know. Of the 20 people I spoke to, one was supportive of John\u2019s hiring. The other 19 thought it was a sham, to be perfectly honest. Words were used like \u2018con artist, liar, salesman.\u2019 How did you come to a different conclusion than I was able to come to in a very short time?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMust have talked to different people,\u201d Pelley replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it?\u201d the reporter fired back. \u201cThe hockey world today is astounded by this announcement. And your response is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pelley responded that there was \u201cdeep due diligence and a thorough process,\u201d though he didn\u2019t elaborate on what that entailed.<\/p>\n

Simmons then appeared on the \u201cOff the Roster<\/a>\u201d podcast to tell a bizarre story involving Chayka from just after his time with the Arizona Coyotes, where he was the youngest general manager in NHL history at 26 years old.<\/p>\n

\"JohnJohn Chayka, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, speaking at a press conference. AP<\/p>\n

Chayka took over the Coyotes job in 2016, abruptly resigned<\/a> in 2020, and was later suspended by the NHL for violating league rules after discussing prospective roles with the Devils<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bill Armstrong, now the general manager for the Utah Mammoth, then took over as the general manager in Arizona. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn his office, he had six computer terminals, and it looked like he was a Wall Street trader. There was data on every screen. Bill Armstrong goes in for his first day of work, and he\u2019s trying to see how this all works,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cWell, he\u2019s got one computer working in front of him, but he can\u2019t get the others to work. He\u2019s trying to figure out how to get the others working. So he calls the IT guy, who comes in and he sees \u2018none of those other computers are set up.\u2019 It\u2019s basically fake information on those screens. He had six computer terminals on his desk, and five of them were not working.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JohnSteve Simmons dove into the Maple Leafs new general manager. YouTube Off The Roster<\/p>\n

Chayka did not respond to Simmons\u2019 questioning during the viral press conference moment, but fans are outright upset about the hiring, given his past transgressions, including a league suspension.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs are coming off their worst season since 2009, though they still have plenty of high-end talent led by perennial MVP candidate Auston Matthews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs had a lot to explain to their fan base on Tuesday. Toronto Sun reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99,1788],"class_list":["post-626578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}