Jack Eichel is still on the Buffalo Sabres. He has not had surgery on his neck. That’s a contentious debate between a team and a very high-profile player. And I want to know, if you — as in the league — had any sort of appetite to intervene and play mediator and deal with that, in one way or another. Because this is a situation that’s at loggerheads and has been for six months. We’re moving toward a resolution now, but it’s been quite a long time.
Well, it’s a fair question, I think we’ve made ourselves available to both parties in the dispute, to be of assistance to the extent we can be. And that continues to this day, that communication. Those lines of communication are open, and we’re here as a resource to provide assistance to the extent we can.
Having said that, they each have their own vested interests in what’s going on here, and it’s not our place to interfere with those vested interests, or to rule one way or the other as some would have us do. They each have their arguments. They each have valid arguments. They each have contractually based arguments. So if it was a matter of that was open to interpretation, where we could throw a lightning bolt fairly, we would, but that’s not what this situation is, unfortunately.
At the end of the day, it’s going to be resolved by the parties themselves. I think since Pat Brisson has been brought on by Jack, to counsel the situation for Jack, I think certainly the lines of communication between the Eichel camp and the Sabres are far more open than they were before. They understand each other’s points and arguments, and they’re trying to find something that will work for both parties. So let’s hope they can do that.
So it feels like they better understand each other, versus a month ago or two months ago? Are we turning in the right direction there?
Yeah, I think so. Pat came in and tried to learn as much as he could about the different issues in a short time period. But I think he also, one, had an established relationship with the organization, but also worked hard to build a better relationship — a more open and transparent relationship — with both the ownership in Buffalo but also the management team in Buffalo. So they’re pulling in the same direction to try to get a resolution, but they’re doing it obviously from different sides of the river.
2022-1st-top 5 protected, Koskinen, Holloway) : Gibson
