Edmonton Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini thought he’d be talking in detail about his goalie’s sentencing for an extreme DUI charge, but Nikolai Khabibulin appealed his conviction Tuesday and Tambellini couldn’t say much.
“Nik and his lawyers exercised their right to an appeal, this obviously means that the process continues,” Tambellini said. “It doesn’t allow me, unfortunately, to comment on behalf of the team as we thought we were going to be able to do but that’s Nik’s right.”
The charges stem from an incident on Feb. 8 in Scottsdale, Arizona when Khabibulin was pulled over by police. Officers said his blood alcohol content was .164 — more than double the legal limit.
Tambellini said at this point, Khabibulin can come to training camp but he doesn’t know how long he’ll be able to stay.
“It could take months from what I understand. It kind of puts things on hold obviously and it doesn’t allow us to go forward,” he said. “We support Nik through this, he’s made a mistake. But let me assure you that this organization is treating this very seriously and I’ll withhold comments until this process is finished.”
