Montreal Canadiens: How does the John Chayka situation affect Taylor Hall?

There is a lot coming from the Arizona Coyotes with John Chayka’s departure, and it could help put the Montreal Canadiens in a position to sign Taylor Hall.

Sunday was one of those days that bring about more questions while answering some at the same time. If you missed it, John Chayka, who served as the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes, has left the organization. There’s a short tie to the Montreal Canadiens here as Chayka, and Marc Bergevin came together for the trade that saw Max Domi and Alex Galchenyuk swap places, but there is a lot more going on here.

Insiders are still trying to dig up all the details, but this is what we know so far (via Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman)

An unknown team’s ownership group spoke to Coyote’s owner Alex Meruelo. Apparently, they wanted to speak to Chayka about a new position. Meruelo allowed the conversation, not thinking anything would come out of it when, in reality, Chayka entered the idea that wasn’t just going to see him become the general manager of another team.

The rest is still murky, but as of now, Chayka isn’t the general manager anymore and has seen his contract, which was recently extended until the end of the 2023-24 season, terminated.

This definitely explains why Chayka wasn’t present at a dinner between Taylor Hall and Coyotes ownership even though he set it up. The relationship was in the gutter at that point, and ownership wanted to settle the re-signing negotiations without him. Speaking of that, there have been some rumblings as to what some of those initial conversations included.