Maple Leafs hiring John Chayka as new GM is ‘like a nightmare’ from Shane Doan’s past - Arizona Sports

May 4, 2026, 5:17 PM | Updated: May 5, 2026, 8:53 am Larry Fitzgerald will receive a fairytale finish to his legendary career in Arizona. It will come in the form of a gold jacket and Hall of Fame induction later this summer.  Shane Doan is still waiting for his happy ending.  The former Coyotes legend was expected to lose his job with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday after the club introduced a new leadership team. Toronto brought in a franchise legend in Mats Sundin to serve as a senior advisor and deodorant for their new general manager, John Chayka. You might remember the name.  The hockey gods have a sick sense of humor.  Chayka became the Coyotes GM in 2016 at the tender age of 26. He was billed as an analytics wunderkind. He turned out to be a fraud. In June 2017, Chayka invited Doan to breakfast at First Watch in Scottsdale. Doan assumed the young GM wanted the captain’s input and advice moving forward into the offseason. Instead, eight minutes into the meeting, Doan was told he was no longer wanted. Doan said it felt like a callous corporate firing and he left on the spot, in pain and disgust, without breakfast. After 21 years of extreme loyalty – where he served as the wholesome, happy, goodwill ambassador to one of the most dysfunctional sports franchises in history – Doan was fired by a charlatan. The brusque treatment of a local legend rocked the Valley to its core.  Doan was 40 at the time and wanted one more season, even willing to accept a demotion to the fourth line. After he kept the franchise afloat for the better part of 20 years … after he alone kept season ticket holders coming back year after year … the Coyotes would not let him retire on his terms. It remains one of the most despicable acts in Arizona sports history, and Chayka would soon show his colors. He was at the center of scandals near the end of his tenure and abruptly quit on the team before the COVID-19 bubble playoffs in 2020. He has been out of the NHL ever since.  Until he showed up in Toronto on Monday like a nightmare from Doan’s past.  Wait, there’s more. After the sale of the team to Alex Meruelo, Doan returned to the Coyotes as Chief Hockey Development Officer in January 2021. Old wounds began to heal. His son, Josh, was drafted with the 37th overall pick. To the delight of Coyotes fans, his bloodline was coursing through the organization once again. But when Doan had asked for a promotion to director of hockey operations, the owner’s son had the gall to tell Captain Coyote that he wasn’t ready for the job. And that was the last indignity he would suffer.  Doan came from Winnipeg when the franchise moved here in the mid-1990’s. He dealt with scandals, terrible owners, cheap rosters, threats of bankruptcy, swallowing every form of embarrassment imaginable for a prideful hockey player. But Doan never stopped believing in a better future. And the Coyotes never stopped letting him down.  If poetic justice is to be served, Mat Ishbia will step up and buy an expansion team within the next five years; name Doan as team president; and watch him recruit Josh Doan from Buffalo and Scottsdale native Auston Matthews from Toronto. Maybe throw in the Tkachuk boys for a real run at the Stanley Cup. In professional sports, loyalty can be a landmine. Doan learned the hard way. It’s about time someone gives him the happy ending he deserves.  Reach Bickley at dbickley@arizonasports.com. Listen to Bickley & Marotta weekdays from 6 a.m. – 10 a.m. on Arizona Sports 98.7.