DETROIT — Eugene Melnyk has shared more details about his life-saving liver transplant.

Melnyk has written a piece for The Players’ Tribune, posted Monday, about the shock of learning he needed a new liver from Dr. Atul Humar at the Toronto’s University Health Network, and what he went through when he first arrived at the hospital in January, 2015 until he had the procedure in May, 2015.

Melnyk told The Players’ Tribune the thought of needing a transplant never crossed his mind when he was told by the doctors how ill he really was.

“Liver transplant. Those were two words that I just never expected to hear. There wasn’t much room for interpretation anymore,” Melnyk said in the article. “My first thought — my immediate gut reaction —was to dismiss it all. Like, come on, this has to be some kind of joke.”

Melnyk said he didn’t want to do the public plea for a liver that was launched in late-May and resulted in the anonymous donor that save his life.

“At that point, I had only a matter of days left, which is when my associates told me that my options were to either make a public plea for a living donor or die,” Melnyk said. “To me, it didn’t seem worth it to ask. I’d kept everything private up to that point, and I didn’t want to court sympathy. The whole process had taken such a toll on me physically and emotionally that it had sapped me of my will to live.

“So I prepared to die. I began making arrangements to sort out my estate with my lawyer. And for the first time, I thought about how I was going to say goodbye to the people I loved. All of this was taking place at the same time that my beloved Ottawa Senators went on a wild winning streak to make the playoffs in 2015. Did I care? Absolutely. Could I stay up to watch the games? No. All my focus was on getting a liver.”

Melnyk said his daughters, Anne and Olivia, changed his mind about whether the club should go public or not.

“If all the decisions had been left up to me, I probably would have died shortly after that. But my life wasn’t just about me,” Melnyk wrote. “As I said before, my kids are smart. They knew what was going on, and they knew that their dad was ready to quit. And my daughters, Anna and little Olivia, weren’t going to accept that.

“When they found out I wasn’t going to go public searching for a donor, they did something that made me very proud. They took control of the situation. I’ll never forget lying there while a 12-year-old girl was admonishing me. Olivia said, with tears in her eyes, ‘Dad, you can refuse to ask for help and die, or you can try to live and raise us. You need to choose to be our dad.’ ”

Part of the reason Melnyk penned the article was to bring attention to The Organ Project he launched in February. He has worked hard to bring more awareness to organ donation so that people aren’t forced to go through what he had to endure. He held a fundraiser for the cause in Toronto last week with singer Carrie Underwood as a special guest and by all accounts it was a huge success.

He also sent a message to the anonymous donor.

“Before the surgery, I was informed that my donor had told the surgeon to send me one (remarkably Canadian) message: ‘I’d like to remain anonymous, but please tell Eugene I want him to bring a Stanley Cup to Ottawa,’ ” Melnyk said. “To whoever saved my life, I just want you know that your kindness has touched me in a way that I feel I can never repay.

“But I’m working on it.”