Zack Kassian opens up about his battle with substance abuse

Zack Kassian of the Edmonton Oilers is one of the most feared players in the league. He's a unique player as his high level of physicality is matched with an underrated skill level and hockey IQ. Kassian loves to battle every game, and recently he opened up about his battle off the ice.

Kassian was a guest on the Kes and Juice Podcast, hosted by Kevin Bieksa and Ryan Kesler, who both played with Kassian in Vancouver when Kassian was dead smack in the middle of his battles. Kassian didn't hold anything back and was as honest as it gets:

One thing I've learned through this whole process of getting clean is the only way you're going to do it is if you want to do it for yourself. You've got to be willing to help yourself. Sadly, you guys tried to help multiple times, but it took, ultimately, a car accident to hit my rock bottom and to really think about what I was doing and how it was affecting the people around me, not only my career, but my family, my friends, and my teammates.

You guys tried to put a stop to it, you guys tried to help the best way you could, and you planted the seed. There were days where I was thinking about what you guys said. You guys were two NHLers, played a long time, two leaders of our team, clearly you're not just going to intervene for no reason.

Kassian got dealt from the Canucks to the Habs but never played a game in Montreal. In late 2015, he was in a car accident, where he was a passenger, drunk and stoned on cocaine. He fractured his foot and broke his nose in the accident. He completed the substance abuse program, and the Habs put him on waivers. Two weeks later he was dealt to the Oilers and the rest is history.

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