The NHLPA has strongly encouraged its players to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and warned of the potential for loss of pay for those who don’t do so, reports Michael Russo and Katie Strang of The Athletic (subscription link). The main scenario where this could happen is flying into Canada where border travel is facing heightened restrictions; commercial travelers will require proof of vaccination by the end of October and while NHL teams fly charter, they could be subjected to that same policy and not allowed into the country. In that situation, teams could have the ability to withhold salaries for the players not allowed in. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly noted that over 85% of NHL players have been fully vaccinated already so this wouldn’t necessarily affect many players but it’s a scenario the NHLPA wants to prepare its membership for.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- Jets forward Andrew Copp acknowledged to reporters, including Postmedia’s Paul Friesen, that his preference was to sign a long-term deal. However, Winnipeg’s cap situation after some of their additions on the back end basically forced their hand and the two sides settled on a one-year, $3.64MM pact that will walk the 27-year-old to unrestricted free agency next summer. With roughly $63.5MM tied up in a dozen players for 2022-23 per CapFriendly (excluding Bryan Little’s LTIR-bound contract), a strong showing next season could result in Copp playing his way out of Winnipeg entirely.
- Veteran winger Jaromir Jagr will turn 50 late in the 2021-22 season and the future Hall of Famer will spend it playing with his hometown team in Kladno in the Czech Extraliga. The overwhelming majority of players hang up their skates by that age but in an interview with Pavel Barta of The Hockey News, the veteran indicated that he’s continuing to play out of obligation more than anything else. Jagr happens to be the owner of the team and is worried about a loss of sponsorship that could put the team in jeopardy if he decided to call it a career. While he isn’t the top scorer he once was, Jagr had a dozen points in 19 games last season to help lead Kladno back to the top level.
Jagr *really* wants to play until he’s 130 …
As do we all.
@forwhomjoshbelltolled – There’s good new and bad news with that, though. The bad news? Ken Holland will have taken all of the Primo aluminum walkers, leaving us with the junkers. The good news? Maybe the salary cap will be up to $85MM by then!
I really hope one brave player, hopefully a star player, stands up to this vax insanity. No one should have to chose between their occupation and unwillingly having an emergency use mRNA chemical injected into them.
As for Copp’s situation in Winnipeg, the Jets will really have made a mistake in putting themselves in a situation where they lose a player like that due to signing some fairly average Dmen this summer.
Stands up how?
It’s a Canadian rule. It’s nothing the nhl nor the team can override.
They don’t get fired. So suggesting they’re losing their occupation is disingenuous, at best.
What’s your ideal protest and expected response to it?
It’s up to the Union.
Uh oh, looks like someone “did their own research” …
Should another player or team employee have to decide between their occupation and the safety of their immuno-compromised child or cancer stricken parent because one of their teammates read something on Facebook?
As someone else pointed out, it’s a foreign country with their own rules. Completely out of anyone’s hands if you aren’t vaccinated, as a foreigner traveling there. If you don’t like it don’t travel there. Just for a point of reference, in case you didn’t know, other countries have the same protocols, so one shouldn’t travel there either, this is not news to anyone paying attention.
Also the players are not gonna be fired, stop with that nonsense. The nhlpa was just giving the players they represent a heads up. But you are right it is complete “insanity” that a country has the right to implement rules they deem fit. Give me a break…
Or should the nhl, tell Canada what the rules really are/should be? I’m sure that will go over well. They could go MLB and make the teams play only in the USA, like they did with the Blue Jays. That’s the only way around it…
Imagine how great things would be if people like this weren’t so easily manipulated. We’d have reached herd immunity. We’d already be through it and out the other end.
So many wonderful comnents here.
Let’s see, what would an ideal protest be? Well, how about a public statement on the issue for starters? Former player Theo Fleury has had no issue in letting his thoughts be known about this.
“But what about the safety of their teammates?”. How’s the safety going in the most heavily vaccinated countries like Israel and Iceland? That some are still making this safety argument is absurd.
Most people would consider not being paid to have a deleterious impact on their employment. What do you think a team will do with a player who can’t participate in, at minimum, 7 games next season?
And yes, I do do my own research. Might help if a few of you did the same.
Cmon man, this is not it
Safety is going just fine. In the “outbreaks” of “breakthrough cases” amongst vaccinated people (no one said vaccines stop all transmission, anyone claiming they did is admitting that they do not know the difference between 95% and 100%) such as the big one in Provincetown, MA that got everyone’s attention, there were 7 hospitalizations and ZERO deaths.
Cases mean nothing, hospitalizations and deaths are the metric.
In FL and TX right now, someone has to die for you to get an ICU bed. The hospitals are so filled with sick (actually sick, not just positive) Covid patients that ambulances are diverting patients from LA and TX to Denver, CO. MS just build a Covid ward in a parking garage because they are so overwhelmed with sick and dying people. 98% of them are unvaccinated.
How many labs do you run, how big is your staff, what is your annual budget?
“I do my own research” means “I listen to roofers on Facebook, not scientists or doctors, for my medical advice.” Which is, yes, your right. But also insane. And not something the rest of society has an obligation to indulge.
Well said!
yeah, I get the sentiment here, but because of the aspect regarding Canada it kinda makes this point moot. one of the challenges of having an international league. there are things that go on in Canada that i wouldn’t vote for, but I’m also not Canadian so I acknowledge I dont have much place to complain even if I wanted to.
forwhomjoshbelltolled reminds me of a term I once heard called invincible ignorance. Literally everything you said above is complete nonsense that you heard on CNN or another of your social media sites. (BTW, I don’t do social media, so your confession thru projection shows thru here).
The President you voted for has allowed tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to flood the southern borders, many of whom are covid positive, and yet you want to blame those states covid policies for any uptick in covid casualties?
The nation that handled covid correctly and was criticized relentlessly by people like yourself is Sweden. Did you know that only 27% of their adult population is fully vaccinated, yet they have been at zero covid deaths for weeks? Of course you didn’t because it doesn’t fit your narrative.
Israel, on the other hand, is now requiring a 3rd dose of the vaccine for one to be declared fully vaccinated. At what point do you finally say enough at? 4th dose? 5th dose? Never?
Alex Jones?
You seem like a decent enough guy when you talk hockey. I sincerely hope you find your way out of the cavern of disinformation you live in.
Your cult leader got vaccinated, all of the talking heads filling yours got vaccinated, Murdoch was literally one of the first people on Earth waiting in line to get vaccinated…were I you I’d really wonder why they are willing to risk your life to play their political games, but not their own. I’d have real questions about that.
And there is only one answer.
Hopefully you’ll see it one day. Before it’s too late for you or someone around you.
Regardless of which side of the narrative one believes in, and it is really boiling down to a belief as there are “facts” on any side of an argument. What cannot be argued is the rules / laws that countries enact… unless anyone posting here wants to start a rebellion and overthrow their government. I wish y’all the best of luck with that endeavour.
The players can easily protest this, at the cost of salary. Economics will drive the players to get vaccinated and they will play hockey. It’s not even really news.
Now Jagr, playing at 50, that’s news. The Methuselah of the modern hockey world.
I hate the fact that these sites turn into a covid vax war. I have my opinions and convictions as all of you all do. Whatever side you’re on, you’ve got to admit it’s alarming the government implementing policies to force people into putting something in their bodies. I don’t care what your view is on the vax that’s wayyyy too close to ol uncle Stalin. However This is a sports site so let’s talk hockey. If there’s one thing we SHOULD be concerned about is how long until Ken Holland signs Jagr I know he’s thinking about it….
forwhomjoshbelltolled, yes, there really are facts vs fiction. And here at the link I’m posting, anyone can see that what you wrote in previous post was complete nonsense.
link to worldometers.info
Secondly, I have no “cult” leader (again, I suspect confession thru projection on your part). I’ve in fact been a critic of how Trump handled covid. Calling it a “plauge” and pushing emergency use vaccines (i.e. vaccines that didn’t go thru proper FDA testing) is something I couldn’t disagree more on.
As C.S. Lewis put it: “When the whole world is running towards a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind.”
And when nations destroy their economies, peoples businesses and livelihoods, cause despair leading to huge rises in suicides and drug overdoses, take away years of normal development from children and keep people in a perpetual state of fear, I’ll stand against that with every fiber of my being.
One final note. In the 18 months since this “pandemic” started, and despite knowing and working with many hundreds of people, I know of 3 people who got covid. All recovered quickly from it. That may be anecdotal, but it’s reality as well. The measures being taken have by far been on the wrong side of the cost benefit scale.
@KAR 120C – What could be an issue is if a player claims a breach of contract for not getting paid in games he’s willing to play in but is disallowed from doing so. They may or may not win that fight, but there are many lawsuits already from employees (e.g. Tyson Foods) where this is being litigated.
CS Lewis. Not a great theologian, but he was a great writer and had some great quotes. Love that one @Gbear.
The “overwhelming majority?” Has ANY player not named Howe played regular top-flight shifts at age 50?