Preds Hold Press Conference to Address Watson Suspension

From the start of the press conference, Predators President & CEO Sean Henry and General Manager David Poile made two things very clear.
First, the organization does not condone domestic violence and will continue their partnership with
AMEND
to end violence against women in the city of Nashville.
And secondarily, they weren't about to walk away from a member of their family.

When the NHL announced a 27-game suspension of Preds forward Austin Watson due to "unacceptable off-ice conduct," all parties involved finally had a ruling on an incident that took place almost three months ago. But long before the decision came down on Wednesday night, Henry, Poile and the Predators had already made up their minds.
"The biggest question I was asked was, 'How can you have this guy on your team when you allegedly stand against violence on women?'" Henry said Thursday at Bridgestone Arena as the Predators opened training camp. "For us, it's a pretty simple answer - the two are not at odds with each other. Whenever something like this hits a little closer to home, you have to look at it two ways. You have a choice: walk away from the person or walk away from the issue. We don't see it that way. We see engaging with Austin and [his girlfriend] Jenn deeper, and most importantly, standing with our commitment with AMEND."
That commitment with the organization, whose goal is dedicated to ending the epidemic of violence against women and girls by empowering young men and boys to bring change - and an organization the Preds helped to establish - is actually now stronger than ever.
Instances like these are why AMEND exists. And the Predators want nothing more than to bring everyone together to make a change for the better.

"The League has made its decision, and we are supportive of that decision," Poile said. "Our focus is on Austin as a person and getting him to where he wants and needs to be as a partner and as a father, as well as in the community, before he can start focusing on hockey again."
With the rest of his teammates in the room, Preds Captain Roman Josi also read a statement on behalf of the players, pledging their continued commitment to AMEND, while also supporting the betterment and recovery of Watson and his family.
Watson will have a full range of resources available to him as he serves his suspension, and the Predators management, coaches and players want the winger to take full advantage of those resources during that time.
But the Predators also never viewed this as a situation they should rid themselves of without instead looking at how they could help.
"We do not take this lightly," Poile said. "[But we look at it as] if something happened to your own child in this situation, what would you do? And I think you would do everything you could to rehabilitate your child or make the situation whole. I'm hoping at the end of the day that maybe this is a blessing, that maybe this is what was meant to be for a lot of reasons and there's going to be a good outcome here for Austin and Jenn and their baby. It's a very difficult situation, it's a private situation, and we're the family that's going to do our best to try and take care of this."
Poile and Henry stated that the length of the suspension - whether it was four games or 400 - wasn't going to matter. What does matter is doing what's best for those that this incident affected most.
After all, the Predators don't view themselves as just a professional hockey team - they're a family.
And they're not about to turn their back on one of those members.
"This is a family, and things happen with all of our families that aren't exactly perfect," Poile said. "I'm really hoping deep down that in a lot of ways, that we as an organization, and Austin and his family are going to come out of this in a much better place somewhere down the road. Our thoughts were only to treat this as family."