The CH’s Stagnation: It’s John Chayka’s (and Mathieu Darche’s) Fault

Do you have children? If so, you've surely heard one of them complain about the other's behavior… after starting the fight themselves.

“Dad, Médéric hit me!”

“OK, but why did you take his toy from him just before that?”

NHL team owners are just the same:

“Gary, you absolutely have to find a way to implement a fixed salary cap.”

However, the cap was implemented because a guy like Glen Sather in New York had promised Bobby Holik the moon. In short, the cap serves to protect GMs and owners from themselves.

Here we are 20 years later, and the salary cap is still there to protect GMs and owners from themselves. The NHL has announced an $8.5 million increase for the 2026–27 season—the first of several substantial increases—and several teams have offered contracts that make no sense. All of this even before the free-agent market opens on July 1!

Pavel Dorofeyev will earn $11 million per season with the Rangers…

Tony DeAngelo will earn $4.5 million next season with Mathieu Darche's Islanders…

Alex Tuch, who was practically nowhere to be seen in the series against the Canadiens, will earn $10.5 million with the Capitals…

Darren Raddysh convinced John Chayka and the Maple Leafs to offer him $8.5 million per season for eight years…

Even Michael McCarron signed a contract guaranteeing him a total of $20 million (over six years).

Holy cow!

Wondering why Kent Hughes has only completed two (very) minor deals so far? Here's the answer: GMs and hockey presidents have $8.5 million more to spend than before. They're going crazy.

The law of supply and demand is completely out of balance. Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, who consistently make rational and well-considered decisions, simply haven't been able to close any deals for the past ten days or so. There's always another completely out-of-control GM coming along to derail the Habs' attempts.

These GMs know they risk losing their jobs with their current clubs the day those contracts become a liability.

The other problem with all this is that agents negotiate their clients' contracts based on a percentage of the salary cap. With an $8.5 million increase, they're much more demanding in terms of absolute dollars. Kent Hughes will have a hard time signing Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobes to seven- or eight-year deals without breaking the organization's salary structure.

You know what bothers me the most about all this? Markets like Montreal's could make even more profit without the salary cap and the revenue sharing among the 32 NHL teams. However, we find ourselves watching clubs that wouldn't survive without “us”… preventing us from improving.

And no, that's not going to change when Gary Bettman steps down. His replacement is very likely to be Bill Daly, his current right-hand man. #Continuity

Overtime

John Chayka and the Maple Leafs aren't just responsible for completely derailing salary balance across the NHL; they've also refused to honor the trade involving Matthew Knies and the Canadiens, a deal finalized last March.

In short, if the Canadiens haven't made a move yet since the start of the summer, it's partly because of John Chayka.