From what I understand, a Godfather-esque “offer he couldn’t refuse” was made. Some sources indicated that it was not a lateral move, bigger than the current job Chayka was doing. It is believed that this involves an ownership group with teams in other leagues and Chayka could have involvement in those other teams.
The Coyotes were stunned and enormously disappointed. However — and this will be another key part of the dispute — they made it very clear the titles “general manager” and/or “president of hockey operations” could not be involved, to prove that Chayka was not making a lateral move. They are prepared to argue that is written into Chayka’s contract.
The above is from Freidman on the Chayka situation. It seems likely that the team was us as our owners have multiple teams, our stats department has a lot of influence, and we had a vacant GM and coaching position while all this was going on. Let's hope we didn't give Bettman an excuse to take away draft picks.
