Jack Eichel's former teammate opens up on their relationship

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Joshua Deeds
July 28, 2022 (8:45 PM)

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Kyle Okposo has been in the Buffalo Sabres system since 2016 and he made the move due to the fact, that Ryan O'Reilly and Jack Eichel may end up centering him on a line at the time.

Okposo made a long-term deal, signing 7 years with Buffalo for $42 million after moving on from the New York Islanders.

All the while he built relationships with teammates and Eichel ended up being one of them, a casualty of the brutal behind-the-scenes treatment of Eichel's situation as Kevyn Adams refused to let Eichel determine his own method of treatment.

Okposo stated that the situation after Eichel left, was stressful due to the split between Eichel and Kevyn Adams on the treatment of his neck injury. Eichel signed with Okposo's agent, Brisson in August of 2021, to get movement on the situation.

"That situation was very stressful on everybody. I love Jack, he's a good friend of mine. And like obviously, I have a job to do and l'm a Sabres player. Jack and I have had so many conversations and we've
talked about it so much and the only person that's ever gonna be privy to those is Jack. He knows exactly how feel about him. He knows care about him and he knows do anything to help him.

It was just such a difficult situation because for whatever reason, the CBA Was written to where the team had control of the final medical thing. As a person, obviously you're not going to let anyone tell you what to do with your body, right? So it was a rock and a hard place, and I think that Pat came in Pat Brisson, who's my agent he came in, he did a great job at navigating the whole situation. Him and Kevyn worked really closely together to get that done in am amicable way. And I'm so happy that Jack ended up getting the surgery, and now he's healthy. think for our team, and the way that it affected us, Kevyn came in and was very, very honest what was going on, right off the bat. In the locker room, it didn't really affect us too much. Jack wasn't around, which sucked. It sucked not having him around, but we just were kind of focused on playing, and that's what we tried to do"

During the interview, Okposo on Spittin' Chiclets said he supports Eichel and cares about him, but noted how in spite of the entire situation he had to keep his head down and keep playing in the midst of the Buffalo dumpster fire that season.

In the long-run Okposo knew that split wouldn't be amicable, but he still maintained a relationship with Eichel regardless.