Coyotes GM John Chayka’s brand of hockey is ‘still evolving’

As the youngest general manager in the NHL, the 27-year-old John Chayka will be examined closely under the microscope.

There has been no fear from Chayka aggressively making deals. In his five months as the Arizona Coyotes GM, he’s already made a bevy of moves, including a trade that allowed the team to sign defenseman Alex Goligoski, the re-signing of Tobias Rieder, and making a trade on draft night to pick Jakob Chychrun No. 16 overall.

Chayka joined Doug and Wolf on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM to discuss the state of the Coyotes and explain what he envisions for the brand of hockey he wants to see in Arizona.

“I think you’re learning every day. I think everyone’s kind of going through a learning experience and getting better and just looking for new ways to improve,” Chayka said. “It’s tough to pinpoint one specific thing; what I’ve learned is a lot about the players’ mindset and what they want as an organization and as a team.”

With a new regime in the front office, everyone in the organization must get a feel for each other. With the moves over the offseason, and having one of the deepest pipelines in the entire NHL, Chayka hopes that leads to the improved confidence of his players.

“When you make some moves and bring in some players that add some stability and add some upside — and certainly we have some good, young players — and the onus kind of switches from wondering what management’s doing or what the coaching staff is doing and the players realize it’s on them to play and to win,” Chayka said.

Successful coaches and general managers have a certain way of handling their craft. With the growth of such a young team, Chayka admittedly is still getting a feel for what his philosophy is going to be.

“I think it’s still evolving of course. (The Patriots’ Bill Belichick and the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich) are pretty established in winning. I think more so than anything that’s what represents those teams or personnel that you mentioned, they’re winners, and that kind of lends itself to having a particular style,” Chayka said. “But I guess things we’re looking for is we’re trying to integrate a lot of youth into our lineup right now, and with that comes a lot of speed and skill, energy and excitement, and that’s what we’re about right now, we’re trying to infuse that youth.”

The Coyotes are coming off a 78-point season in 2015-16 and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Chayka’s plan right now is to rely on the team’s youth and hope to get the Coyotes out of their playoff drought.

“We just want to put together a group that can go out and dictate the game and take the game to the other team, and if we play our best we know we can win, and we’ve got to get back to doing that,” he said.