John Chayka just pulled off the biggest hire of the NHL offseason for the Maple Leafs with O'Brien

Erik Johnson backs the Toronto Maple Leafs' decision to hire performance coach Andy O'Brien, calling him one of the best in the business.

The Stanley Cup champion and former NHLer went public this week, and he did not hedge on it.

Johnson says he has worked with O'Brien directly, and that experience is shaping how he sees this hire.

"Brilliant guy, and I can speak from firsthand experience about how good he is," Johnson said. "Everything he has you do off the ice translates on the ice."

That is not a throwaway compliment. It is coming from a player who lifted the Cup and has seen plenty of performance staffs around the league.

Johnson did not stop there either.

He pointed out that not every organization is willing to pay for this level of expertise, and that the Leafs did not cut corners.

"Some teams do not hire the best for this position because it is dollars," Johnson said. "The Leafs stepped up here."

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Why Toronto needed a shake-up behind the scenes

Context matters here, and Toronto's context was ugly. The Maple Leafs finished last season 32-36-14, good for 78 points and a minus-46 goal differential.

They closed the year on a seven-game losing streak, going 2-7-1 over their final ten games.

Jim Hiller heads the bench in Toronto, but this hire lives outside the coaching staff. Performance and conditioning work happens away from practice, in the room nobody sees on game night.

Think of it like an offensive line coach in football. Nobody chants his name, but the quarterback's health depends on him.

If O'Brien's reputation is what Johnson says it is, the Leafs are betting that better off-ice habits show up on the scoreboard next season.

That bet does not pay off in August. It pays off, or it does not, somewhere around a back-to-back in January when legs are heavy and the schedule stops being forgiving.

The post came via @Leafslatest, citing @6ErikJohnson, and it landed with the kind of directness fans in Toronto rarely get from outside voices.

Whether this hire actually moves the needle on a team that just posted a minus-46 goal differential is a different question, and one nobody can answer in the middle of summer.