Elliotte Friedman

Initially, I was told a relative of his contacted a former employee of Statlet's, the analytical company the family owns.

That employee now works for an NHL team, and the team reported the contact to the league."

Then I heard another story that a different NHL club complained about improper contact, but when I reached out to that team, they denied it.

Whatever the case, it doesn't appear that it's going anywhere.

What someone said to me about it, however, was interesting.

He said it indicates Chayka's true challenge that the other GMs are unhappy with his hiring and are going to take shots at him every chance they can.

It will make an already huge task even harder.

That's where we begin the interview with the Maple Leafs' new GM.

First day on the job, and already there's a tampering story.

Can you explain exactly what the league contacted the Maple Leafs about here?

Okay, one of the things that somebody said to me was that it shows the challenge that you have.

That there's not a lot of grace from the other managers here and that they're upset about your history and you resurfacing in this spot and it will make the challenge for you even greater.

Yeah.

How do you feel about that?

Okay.

So was there any point after your name surfaced in here and some of the stories came out and some of the allegations resurfaced and some comments were made that any part of you that said,

This isn't for me.

No, not a speck of that from my side.

Okay.

Can you work with the other GMs in this league?