Arizona Coyotes Hire 26-Year-Old John Chayka As General Manager

John Chayka is about to make you feel really inadequate. The 26-year-old analytics expert is reportedly going to be named the general manager of the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. He’ll be 16 years younger than the next youngest NHL general manager.

Chayka has been the team’s assistant GM since last year and will replace Don Maloney who was fired in April. Chayka will not only be the NHL’s youngest current general manager, he’ll be the youngest in league history.

To give you an idea of how insane this is, I graduated college a few months before turning 26. Yes, I took time off from school to work for a few years, but still! Chayka graduated from the University of Western Ontario in 2014…and now he’s the general manager of a major professional sports franchise. That’s insane.

The guy was born on June 9, 1989, which means he was a year away from being alive when Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. Fellow NHL GM Steve Yzerman had already been playing in the NHL for six years when Chayka was born. Oh, and here’s this for a kicker: Chayka is currently 13 years younger than his team’s captain, Shane Doan.

All professional sports leagues are making the shift to analytics-based decision-making and as a result we’re seeing younger and younger executives. Chayka is the most recent example of that phenomenon.