You know what'd be weird? If we had a GM who could deal with any other GM in the league. First we had Maloney, who only had the Rangers and Flames in his Rolodex, and now we have Chayka, who seems to think that if he and Stan Bowman play two-man-juggle with their rosters long enough, both will have a chance at being good.
If the organization started showing too much competency, I'd feel like we were somehow cheating.
I think part of this is Chayka is still an outsider in what is still by and large the old boys' club. He doesn't seem particularly charming either, so I doubt we're going to get many favours. He's going to keep going back to the wells where he has found water.
You saw this with Burke's comments.
Everybody likes to haggle, but if it's a complete grind or starts from somewhere ridiculous, the whole thing feels needlessly tedious like they are wasting your time. Better things to do.
I'd rather spend a few hours negotiating a car deal than spend days or weeks full of hours grinding someone down to save a couple hundred bucks. And if he's treating everything as a grind AND asking the moon, noone is going to bother exploring a deal or negotiating. They'll just pass.