Daryl Katz, the owner of the Edmonton Oilers, made a rare public appearance today to announce Ken Holland would be taking over as the new GM and President of Hockey Operations of the team. Katz has stayed out of the public eye recently until this press conference where he addressed the failures of the franchise saying the problems “start and stop with me”.
The announcement of Ken Holland as the new GM is a much-needed change for the Oilers who have only been to the playoffs once in the past 13 seasons after losing in the Stanley Cup in the 2005-2006 season to the Carolina Hurricanes.
Daryl Katz did not look well during the event which many social media users were quick to point out with most of them believing his new facial features were a result of plastic surgery gone wrong.
What kind of water has Daryl Katz been drinking?!
The posts were mostly mean spirited towards Katz. Some Twitter users were a bit more kind and said that his appearance may be the result of a medical issue.
There are a lot of reasons to pile on Daryl Katz (I know I do) but going after his personal appearance is bad form when it could be a medical issue.
Those Twitter users were correct. The reason Katz’s nose is crooked and deflated and his face looks slightly caved in is due to a rare sinus infection.
Canadian sportscaster John Shannon, a current panelist on Rogers Sportsnet’s Hockey Central, went to Twitter to defend Daryl Katz and explain that it’s a rare, life-threatening medical condition that has caused his looks to deteriorate. According to Shannon, the disease is extremely serious and has a 50-50 survival rate. Katz has apparently been fighting this disease for the past 2 years.
There’s been a lot made publicly today about how Daryl Katz looks. After asking a few questions, I can tell you he has been struggling with life threatening
bacteria-resistant sinus infection over the past few years.
1/2
In fact, he carried an IV bag 24/7 during the playoff run, 2 seasons ago. The infection has a 50-50 survival rate. He’s had 3 surgeries over the past 10 months with 1 more surgery to go. It is the primary reason why he hasn’t been around Edmonton and the team.
2/2
This public appearance also comes after Daryl Katz was involved in a controversy in 2017 when The Daily Mail reported that Katz had offered Jane the Virgin star Greice Santo $1.5M to sleep with him. Katz’s cousin, Michael Gelmon, was captured on a leaked phone call telling Santo that she would “never work in Hollywood again” if she did not acquiesce to his demands. Katz has denied the claims and called them “false, malicious and entirely without merit”.
Comments
Did Daryl Katz get Plastic Surgery?