Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) – Buffalo Sabres General Manager Kevyn Adams did his end of the season press conference on Wednesday and hit on many topics. He opened with a statement on Jack Eichel and I want to bring you his full statement,
“We all want the same thing here when it comes to Jack Eichel. We want Jack Eichel to be healthy, to be able to play at the top of his game and to be one of the best players in the world like he’s proven he is.
I want to back up a little bit with what ended up being Jack’s last game of the season. After that Jack was quickly imaged. Our doctors diagnosed Jack with a herniated disk in his neck, discussed the next steps from there being conservative care with rehab treatment with the hopes that he would be able to go through that process and return to play this season.
Not long after that Jack asked to get a second opinion which is within his rights and I totally support and as an organization we support it. Anytime a player in any medical situation wants to get another opinion I think it’s great, the more information, the better and that’s what he did.
A point I want to drive home is through this process from what I’ve laid out to where we are today, there has been constant communication (In his press conference Eichel disputes that. He said they’ve spoken twice) from myself to Jack, our organization to Jack’s agents, doctors to Jack, doctors to doctors. Some of the communication has been formal where we’ve all been together, some of its been phone calls, some of its been Zoom, some of its been one off, but it has been constant and continuous communication from the beginning with all parties.
What was agreed upon by the doctors, the experts was conservative rehab approach and our doctors are highly regarded in the medical industry, they are exceptional at what they do and all of the doctors involved agreed on the conservative approach, so typically in this situation and in their experience, there’s a high probability that through a conservative rehab approach, you are able to avoid surgery and you are able to comeback and perform at the top of your game.
What I want to make sure you all understand is we’re still in that window. What was discussed was a 12 week mark which takes us to the end of May, early June timeframe and that’s where we still are at, so we’re still in that conservative rehab process and I think you can all appreciate that everyone wants to avoid any type of a surgery and a conservative approach is the best approach with the hopes of avoiding any type of surgery.
It’s been speculated and discussed from Jack’s camp about potentially having a surgery that’s never been done on a National Hockey League player before. Our doctors aren’t comfortable with that, but I think we all are in a position where we want the same thing and hope that when we reimage this in the timeline that I laid out, Jack will have made steps and strides to be able to be in a position where we’re in a better spot.”
Adams said that since the last time we spoke, Eichel has not asked for a trade, but when I asked if he could be looking to move Eichel or Sam Reinhart or any other of the longtime Sabres that have done nothing but suffer through very bad losing. Adams said, “We have to be willing as an organization to look at any and all scenarios to help us improve and I’ve been pretty consistent with that message and I think for where we’re at, I’d expect that and the players would expect that and the fans would expect that, so of course.
“But where we have to be careful is I understand what’s gone on here for the last 10 years. I understand the fan base, the frustration and it’s real, it happened, but we can’t wake up and dwell on that and we can’t look at players and say this player can stay and this player can’t stay because of how long they’ve been here. It’s more about are you part of the solution and do you want to be here and do you want to be part of something great and do you want to make this fan base proud or don’t you? If the answer is no, then we’ll make those decisions.”
On Monday when asked if he wanted to stay in Buffalo Eichel said he has a lot to think about and wouldn’t say yes or no.
Don Granato also spoke on Wednesday so I’m going to put together a separate article about his comments and then I’ll circle back to this article to add more.