Here's all I've got as far as this path "making sense".
The biggest fire Chayka and Sundin walked into was Matthews. We just watched Auston get his knee shredded by a habitual cheap shot merchant and our response as a team was somewhere between tepid and fucking embarrassing. I have no doubt that when they actually had a chance to talk to Auston, that this or things similar to this came up in conversation. We've historically been a team that doesn't respond very well to that type of hockey. Not that we play scared against it, just that we don't respond to it. Treliving and Berube, despite all of the bluster and bullshit built the biggest bitch version of the Leafs we've seen yet. Then we won the lottery in a draft where the clear #1 is a small winger who to his credit isn't afraid to commit assault in a bar. It's not that Auston or McKenna need protection (because we know that shit doesn't work), it's that the need competitive guys around here to change the on ice culture of not sticking up for each other. Everyone we picked up (other than Roslovic) will stick their nose into it. They'll all start scrums, they'll all fight if they need to, etc.
I mean, take a step back and think of what someone like Mats Sundin would say about the Matthews knee injury. The only guy who got sufficiently angry about it was the guy who apparently playing through something that needed back surgery.
I think Chayka wanted to reset that part of the roster hard whether it was the right analytics play or not.
Not saying that I agree, just saying that it makes sense when viewed through that lens. There are no cardio merchants who skip out on the extra curriculars in that bottom group of players now.
