VANCOUVER – The NHL deputy commissioner says the Vancouver Canucks COVID-19 outbreak is worrying, but remains confident that the team will be able to complete its schedule.
In an email to The Canadian Press on Monday, Bill Daly said the Canucks’ numbers are “worrying from a health and safety point of view, not necessarily from a scheduling point of view.”
Daly says the league believes the Canucks will return and complete their 56-game lineup.
Daly also said the league will not change its COVID protocols after the Canucks’ plight.
After striker Adam Gaudette’s positive test came back last Tuesday, training continued without him and then last Wednesday’s morning skating went ahead.
Sixteen of the 22 players in the active Canucks squad were on the NHL protocol list on Sunday. A player on the list did not necessarily have a positive test – the list, for example, also contains players who must isolate themselves for being a close contact or for travel reasons. A player with a positive result must isolate himself for 10 days.
The list is updated every day at 5:00 pm Eastern Time.
The team had four games postponed because of the virus. The Canucks’ next scheduled game is Thursday in Calgary against the Flames.
Several reports said that the P1 variant first identified in Brazil is suspected of being involved in the Canucks outbreak, but the Canucks and NHL have not publicly commented on the test results since the Vancouver organization confirmed that Gaudette had tested positive on the last week.
The biggest previous outbreaks of COVID-19 on the NHL were all in the US
The Dallas Stars had their first four games of the season postponed after 17 players were positive – most of them asymptomatic.
The New Jersey Devils had 19 players on the COVID protocol list and seven games postponed earlier this season, while the Buffalo Sabers had nine players on the list and six games postponed.
The Canucks outbreak comes with the launch of the vaccine being slower in Canada than in many US states.
“There are two different countries, different rules, different situations,” said Calgary Flames center Mikael Backlund. “There is nothing we can do about it. We just have to wait for our turn.”
– With archives by national hockey writer Joshua Clipperton.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 5, 2021.