Who saw this coming — Alex Anthopoulos, hockey guy?

Two sources have now confirmed that the Arizona Coyotes have reached out to the former general manager of the Blue Jays, with the hopes he would consider a senior position or a consulting position with the National Hockey League team.

The call to Anthopoulos from the Coyotes came right after he walked away from the Jays and apparently caught the GM, who has never been involved at any level of hockey, by complete surprise. Anthopoulos does, however, know Arizona assistant GM John Chayka, through his analytics work outside of hockey.

The call to Anthopoulos was one of the first of many he has received inquiring about his future after choosing to walk away from the Jays. Since becoming a free agent of sorts, Anthopoulos has heard from sporting teams and media outlets concerning his future plans.

Apparently, he will not make any decision until late December or early January. It isn’t known whether Anthopoulos has any interest in further conversations with the Coyotes.

THIS AND THAT

Jamie Benn led the NHL in scoring last season with 87 points. Patrick Kane, without controversy, is now leading and scoring at a 127-point pace ... When the Maple Leafs drafted Mitch Marner fourth overall, it was with the hopes they would eventually move the young man from wing to centre. Well, that’s basically been given up on. Marner has played spectacular hockey for Dale Hunter in London, who isn’t planning to play him at centre any time soon ... A Sidney Crosby update: He now has 10 points this season and among the many he is tied with for 139th in NHL scoring are Rick Nash and Joffrey Lupul ... Under the Department of Impressive: Leon Draisaitl. Another young gem — seven goals in 10 games — for the forever last-place Edmonton Oilers ... Diabetes has done to the great Lou Brock what baseball could not: It has slowed him down. Brock, who stole 938 career bases, had part of his left leg amputated this week due to complications related to the disease ... Tom Brady is 169-47 as a starting quarterback in the NFL. That will never happen again. That’s a winning percentage of .782 in 15 seasons starting for the New England Patriots ... So, Travis Hamonic wants to be traded from the New York Islanders to a team in Western Canada for personal reasons. And the Calgary Flames have a different kind of personal problems, with high expectations and low performance to date. Play GM. Would you deal the underperforming Dougie Hamilton to the Islanders for Hamonic? I might ... Henry Burris is 40. No matter what happens this year, he won’t be the oldest quarterback to win a Grey Cup. Damon Allen was 41 when he led the Argos to the 2004 championship ... The biggest issue for the otherwise impressive Morgan Rielly: Gap control. He needs to stop respecting his opponents so much and take away their space better than he does.

HEAR AND THERE

I looked at the NBA schedule and didn’t see this listed anywhere: Tuesday — Toronto Raptors vs. Golden State Warriors and NBA Officials. A three-team match, with all calls going the way of the undefeated Warriors ... The Raptors are 8-6. It isn’t out of the question that, with a call or three going their way in the final two minutes of a game, they could be 11-3 ... They are running television commercials for the 2016 NBA all-star weekend in Toronto, which is nice. Might be nicer if the commercials told anyone when the event is actually happening ... I understand, sort of, why Blue Jays ticket prices have risen by about 10% for the coming season. The Canadian dollar is down close to 25% from where it was just over a year ago and the Jays pay out their salaries in American money ... What I don’t understand: How can the club’s owners, Rogers Inc., keep payroll the same when so much money came their way in the final three months of the season? ... If you want to complain about a price point, trying figuring out the cost of World Cup of Hockey tickets. The website, which is selling tickets at enormous prices, is basically indecipherable. Maybe this is a good time for Toronto sports fans to just say no. We rarely do — although it was done to the Buffalo Bills series here — but this is a chance to say: ‘Sorry, it’s too expensive. I’m staying home.’

SCENE AND HEARD

Here’s a surprise: There’s some garage sale shopping going on in baseball. Teams are actually calling the Jays, inquiring about the availability of lost starter Drew Hutchison ... Some Hutchison stats from last season: With a 1-0 count, batters hit .537 against him. With an 0-1 count, they hit only .230. If he started a count 0-2, the number dropped to .180. When the Jays were ahead on the scoreboard, opposing batters hit .274 against Hutchison. When the Jays were behind, that average rose to .403 ... All that said, the Jays still believe in Hutchison because he strikes batters out, has reasonable control, a decent changeup and a pretty good slider. Then what is it about him? Is he the baseball equivalent of Jonathan Bernier? All the tools but none of the focus to deliver ... Both of the Blue Jays’ MVP award winners arrived in Toronto via clever moves out of the box moves by GMs. Anthopoulos wouldn’t give up on his pursuit of Josh Donaldson. And George Bell, MVP in 1987, came to the Jays when Pat Gillick claimed him from Philadelphia in the Rule 5 waiver draft in 1980. Bell didn’t become a starter with the Jays until 1984.

AND ANOTHER THING

Can you say poison? The Carolina Panthers are 9-0 since letting Greg Hardy go. The Dallas Cowboys are 0-6 since activating him post-suspension ... Is it just me or does 2015 feel like it’s on fast forward? ... Those who were around Mark Buehrle in his final days with the Jays will tell you he wasn’t so OK with being left off the post-season roster, was rather miserable about it and still hasn’t made a decision between retirement and pitching in St. Louis next season ... Sheri Forde. Suneel Joshi. Dan Matheson. Carolyn Waldo. Bill Hutchison. We welcomed all of them into our homes. So many names you know, so many more you don’t, so many good people across the country losing media jobs this week ... It’s great that Dan Shulman will be doing 30 Jays games on TV next season. What isn’t great: He won’t be doing the other 132 ... A new definition for Music City Miracle: “Nashville buying into this NHL all-star game format,” said TSN Drive host, Dave Naylor ... Happy birthday to Yvan Cournoyer (72), Jacques Laperriere (74), Billie Jean King (72), Boris Becker (48), Cassie Campbell-Pascal (42), Wild Samoan Afa (73) and David Pelletier (41) ... And hey, whatever became of Alvin (Skip) Walker?

ON JAMES REIMER

Is this James Reimer’s Devan Dubnyk season?

The Minnesota goaltender was basically written off for dead after he bounced from Edmonton to Nashville to Montreal to Hamilton to free agency just two seasons back. He had no contract, no place to play, no one really believing in him.

And then everything changed for him. First in Arizona with the Coyotes. Then, after being traded to the Wild, where he has a new contract, and 37 wins and 14 regulation time defeats in 55 starts with Minnesota.

This is Reimer’s sixth season with the Maple Leafs. He has been great and terrible and decent and dreadful at various times in his career playing for Ron Wilson, Randy Carlyle, Peter Horachek and Mike Babcock and as many different goalie coaches. And now everything seems to be working. For these few weeks. In this short term. Maybe longer.

Reimer’s contract is up at the end of this season. Before this run of terrific play, the Leafs probably had no intention of re-signing him. Now, they at least have to consider the circumstances and the possibilities.

Sometimes a goalie finds himself at 27, the way Dubnyk did at 28, the way Tim Thomas did at 32.

If it’s true, and this really is Reimer Time, it couldn’t happen to a nicer or more deserving guy.

SOME PERSPECTIVE

To bring some kind of Toronto perspective to Josh Donaldson winning the Most Valuable Player Award in the American League consider this: It is 60 years since Ted Kennedy won the Hart Trophy, the last time a Maple Leafs player captured the NHL’s MVP award.

This just-concluded Year 39 for the Blue Jays: Donaldson is already the second Toronto player — George Bell being the first — to be awarded in such a fashion.

This is Year 21 for the Toronto Raptors: They have never had an MVP winner. Not even close.

Great as Vince Carter may have been for a season or three, he was never a legitimate MVP candidate. Once he finished as high as 10th in the voting.

So to recap and with apologies to the MOPs — Chad Owens, Damon Allen, Doug Flutie, Condredge Holloway and Bill Symons, all winners of the CFL Most Outstanding Player Award — in 120 seasons of major-league sport in Toronto, there has been Donaldson, Bell and Kennedy, and no one else.

One MVP every 40 seasons. Something worth appreciating and celebrating. And wanting more of.

CHAVEZ WAS ON JAYS RADAR ALL ALONG

When the Blue Jays were looking for a top- of-the-rotation starter at the trade deadline, they kicked tires on Johnny Cueto before trading for David Price.

But all the while they had a Plan B, just in case they couldn’t close on an ace. The Plan: Jesse Chavez.

The deal for Price happened and the season ended rather nicely and now the first deal of the post-Alex Anthopoulos era has the Jays acquiring Plan B Chavez from Oakland in a trade for relief pitcher Liam Hendriks.

The Chavez acquisition is along the same thinking of the deal made for Marco Estrada a year ago this month. The Jays didn’t know if Estrada would end up in the bullpen or the rotation. They knew they liked his flexibility. Interim GM Tony LaCava is banking that Chavez can have a somewhat similar impact.

Chavez is pencilled in to the back end of the rotation for now and they think his less than thrilling statistics (7-15, 4.18 earned run average) can be turned around with the help of the Jays’ quality defence and record-breaking offence.

The trading away of Hendriks was surprising because he has four years of control and that’s something the Jays have historically valued. But three factors played into the deal being made: 1. The availability of Chavez; 2. Manager John Gibbons losing trust in Hendriks in the bullpen; 3. The notion that having control of players is less important in the bullpen than it is in other positions because of the year-to-year volatility of the position.