Buffalo Sabres: Tim Murray Discusses Evander Kane
By Paul Taylor
With speculation surrounding Evander Kane’s future with the Buffalo Sabres, general manager Tim Murray took some time out to discuss the controversial winger with the local media.
There has been a lot of speculation about Evander Kane‘s future with the Buffalo Sabres recently. Despite only coming to Western New York just under 17 months ago, he has already been involved in several off-the-field incidents.
The latest such incident happened while the NHL was in Buffalo last week, for the draft. Two crime reports were filed by a couple of women, who claim he physically harassed them at a downtown bar early on Friday morning.
As such, it appears the Sabres have had enough of Kane. According to former Montreal Canadien Georges Laraque, he has been told by an agent they are looking to trade the controversial winger.
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With this in mind, Tim Murray spent some time on Friday, speaking to WGR550’s Paul Hamilton, and the rest of the local media. Buffalo’s general manager was asked if he had lost patience with the 2009 fourth overall draft pick.
Murray said: “It’s a very serious charge and we take it seriously, but I want to wait and see if he’s going to be charged. Is he going to be found guilty, I don’t know that.”
Regardless of Kane’s guilt, Murray is understandably unhappy about how it reflects on the Sabres: “Certainly, we don’t like the fact this is twice now he’s been in incidents like this.
“It’s not good for the organization and it’s not good for him. He’s going to have to pick and choose his spots when he goes out, a lot better than he does and he’s going to have to behave himself.”
Officially at least, the Sabres claim to be taking a wait-and-see approach with the 24-year old. However, as per Laraque’s comments, the reality is they probably are attempting to move him, and sooner rather than later.
Unsubstantiated rumors claim Jack Eichel was with Kane when the latest incident took place on Chippewa Street, in a bar called Bottom’s Up. Even assuming this isn’t true, you can bet the Sabres are concerned about Eichel spending time around negative influences.
Of course, the Sabres’ official stance makes sense. If they are unable to move the Vancouver, BC native, he still has two years and $12 million remaining on his deal and the team needs to get as much production as possible from him.
As such, Murray will continue to – publicly at least – attempt to work things out with Kane and put him on the straight and narrow: “Whether he has done these things or not, it’s not something that I like getting up in the morning and reading about, that’s for sure.
“We’re going to let the process happen. We’ll go with whatever the ruling is and we’re obviously going to have a sit down and go from there.”
As Hamilton points out, a sit down with Murray is apparently an unpleasant experience. However, that could turn out to be the least of the Canadian international’s concerns, with his NHL career now arguably hanging in the balance.
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What do you take away from Murray discussing Kane with the media? Do you believe the Sabres GM will wait to see if there are any charges, or is the controversial winger gone regardless? Let us know in the comments section below.