Takeaways from Kevyn Adams' season-ending press conference

Buffalo Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams clarified the organization's stance regarding Jack Eichel's recovery from a herniated disc in his neck during a Zoom call with the media on Wednesday.
Eichel said during his end-of-season press conference on Monday that there was a "disconnect" between himself and the organization regarding the injury, which was diagnosed by team doctors following his final game of the season on March 7. Adams said Eichel sought a second opinion soon afterward.
"What was agreed upon by the doctors, the experts, was a conservative rehab approach," Adams said.
"And our doctors are highly regarded in the medical industry. They are exceptional at what they do. They are the doctors of the Bills, the Sabres. ... These are experts. And all of the doctors involved agreed on a conservative approach."

Adams said the non-surgical approach was also recommended by the second opinion. He stressed that the organization and members of Eichel's camp have been in constant communication throughout the last two months and that they were still within the agreed-upon window of natural recovery.
"What I want to make sure you all understand is we're still in that window," he said. "What was discussed was kind of a 12-week mark, which takes us to the end of May, early June kind of time frame. And that's where we still are at. So, still currently in that conservative rehab process.
"… Now 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 re-image this in the timeline I laid out, Jack will have made steps and strides to be in a position where we're in a better spot."
Here are three more takeaways from Adams' session with the media on Wednesday.

1. "We are going to get this right with the people that want to be here"

Eichel's comments regarding his injury came in response to a question about whether he felt it was best to continue his career in Buffalo. Sam Reinhart, a pending restricted free agent, said he needed time to decide what he wants for his future. Rasmus Ristolainen told Adams he was open to a trade.
Adams did not comment on any one situation but said he would build the team with players who want to be in Buffalo, a message he has reiterated since taking over as general manager in March 2020.
"I understand what's gone on here for the last 10 years," he said. "I understand the fanbase, the frustration. It's real. It happened. But we can't wake up and dwell on that. And we can't look at players and say, `Well, this player can stay. 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 fanbase proud or don't you? And if the answer is no, then we'll make those decisions."

2. Positivity from the young core

Adams reflected positively on his meetings with the young core that was leaned on heavily late in the season, a group that included five first-round picks under the age of 24 in Dylan Cozens, Casey Mittelstadt, Rasmus Dahlin, Henri Jokiharju, and Tage Thompson.
"The meetings, I was energized, excited," Adams said. "We have a tremendous young core of players that truly care about this team and this organization and this city. And I was extremely impressed on how honest and mature this group was.
"… These players care about each other. You can see it. They really enjoy being together. They each made a point to say that, how much they respect each other. And some of these guys have spent time in Rochester and been kind of growing up. That's special. We have to kind of surround them with the right type of people and players, and make sure we're bringing everybody along the same way."

3. Looking ahead to the coaching search

Adams praised the job done by interim coach Don Granato but said he plans to talk to an array of candidates before making a decision.
"I told Donnie, selfishly, I learned a ton through the coaching search process that we went through in the American Hockey League with Seth Appert ultimately being named," Adams said. "I talked to a lot of different people. Every one of those conversations I learned from and I've said from the beginning that I want to talk to a lot of people with our current situation in Buffalo.
"I want to learn, I want to ask questions. I just want to talk to a lot of different people with a lot of different backgrounds, so we're going to do that. Donnie totally understood and I think he believes he's ready and capable of being a hard coach of this team. I understand that he did a very good job, like I said, under challenging circumstances and now we'll go through the process."