The NHL expected that 98% or perhaps even 99% of their players would be vaccinated against the Coronavirus before the start of the 2021-22 season. It seems that they have somehow bettered that mark. Commissioner Gary Bettman has revealed that there are currently only four unvaccinated players in the league. This is understood to mean that all but four of the roughly 736 players on NHL rosters as of yesterday’s deadline are vaccinated – 99.5% of all players. Bettman spoke to his appreciation and respect for how the players have handled the pandemic in many ways over the past two years:
Throughout all of this, we had great collaboration and cooperation with the players and Players’ Association. This doesn’t happen to get to this point without that collaboration and cooperation. Yes, the players have stepped up to get vaccinated, but even thinking about how the players had to function the last two years, to go into the bubble… Having to adhere to the protocols last season so we could administer 330,000 tests to keep everybody healthy. The fact that we were in the bubble and I think we did 35,000 tests and didn’t have one positive. Everybody banded together to do the right thing. Maybe that’s why hockey is the ultimate team sport.
Of those four players, two have previously been confirmed as New Jersey Devils goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who has at least considered receiving the vaccine, and Detroit Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi. While Montreal Canadiens forward Jesse Ylonen is also unvaccinated and veteran Vancouver Canucks defenseman Travis Hamonic has been speculated as such as well, neither are considered to be part of this group of four as they are both currently in the AHL.
Bettman also noted that all team personnel and all officials are vaccinated. As a whole, the NHL is about as close to full protection against COVID-19 as could reasonably be expected, not to mention lightyears ahead of the other top North American pro sports leagues.
And yet, Coronavirus will continue to play a part in this NHL season. The Seattle Kraken have already dealt with numerous players entering the COVID Protocol before they can even play their first game in the league, while individual players like Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Vegas’ Mattias Janmark are also sidelined by positive tests. The league and its players have done their best to this point, but will have to continue to adhere to COVID Protocol policies and procedures as all involved hope to play a full and uninterrupted schedule this season.
Can’t anyone see that it’s the vaccinated people, just as much as the unvaccinated that are getting diagnosed, and therefore spreading the virus? Bettman states that only 4 nhl players remain unvaccinated, but there are more than 4 in the protocol currently. None of which are of the ‘confirmed’ status.
And often those who are unvaccinated have little to no symptoms. So if everyone is vaccinated why should they have to sit out? If they are seriously I’ll then obviously that is a different story, but shouldn’t being vaccinated keep you in the lineup?
i think we’re at a point where scientific knowledge should generally dictate a normal set of policies in regards to the pandemic (not including mandating the vaccine, granted, the issues there run deeper), yet it’s still largely the whims of businesses that seem to dictate policies. Many places seem to just hope everyone gets vaccinated so they don’t have to put in extra effort with their policies, or hope no one objects to the vaccine mandates (once again, whether you believe they are justified or not).
no
There is no pandemic.
Because if you are positive but showing no symptoms means you can still spread it. That means that you could potentially spread it to someone who would show symptoms. It’s about protecting others.
To follow up on my own comment. If player A is vaccinated and is positive but is allowed to keep contact and keep playing he could pass it on to someone else. That someone else could have a wife and kids at home. Those kids might be too young to be vaccinated and at risk of getting seriously ill. Again it’s about protecting others. The players don’t play in a bubble anymore.
@bluejays4life Young people and also kids dont get seriously ill with that stuff. The notion that vaccination is about “protecting others” is a politically driven lie
the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission. all they claim it does is reduce the symptoms. so when you take any random person aged 20 to 29, you have a survival rate of 99.985%. and that’s without the vaccine or any treatment. and when you factor in the fact that we’re talking about atheles who are in peak physical shape, that number grows even higher. the hospitalization rate is literally below 1% for this group of people, yet we won’t let them play without a vaccine that is quite literally worthless for their age and fitness.
Brandon Sutter says hi.
So forcing people to be vaccinated was initially to stop the virus from spreading and harming others. Than we find out the vaccinated can still catch and spread the virus. Regardless if vaccinated or not this virus isn’t going anywhere. It’s been here prior to the pandemic and was labeled a cold. It was genetically mutated in a lab in China and just as the common cold doesn’t go away, this virus will unfortunately not go away.
People really do not understand science.
Not all vaccines prevent all parts of a virus- the spread, the infection, etc. There was initially no way to know what a vaccine was going to look like. Now that we know, a vaccinated player can catch and spread Covid, but we are significantly decreasing the infection and potential lethality of Covid. By vaccinating everyone, we are basically creating a natural immunity, teaching our bodies how to fight Covid, the same way our bodies fight all sorts of colds, etc. every year. You have all sorts of natural immunities to disease and viruses passed through your genetics, and that is the hope that we can continue that with Covid.
If you don’t get vaccinated, you’re going to be able to catch, spread and die from the virus. While that is your right to choose for yourself, it is not your right to choose that fate for children or people who MEDICALLY cannot get vaccinated. Ultimately, unvaccinated people are just being selfish.
@sick and tired of these idiots
so. much. wrong.
man turn off CNN for goodness sake.
number 1. now that we know the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission, what’s the reasoning for banning unvaxxed players? If the virus is gonna spread regardless and the only thing that is going to change is the person’s personal health, shouldn’t they be able to make that assessment on their own? maybe they’re comfortable with the 99.9%+ survivability rate. and now that we know natural immunity far surpasses vaccine immunity in all aspects, why are we ignoring it?
number 2. you don’t create a “natural immunity” with a vaccine. natural immunity is when you get covid and allow your natural immune system to do its job, then it creates antibodies. THAT is natural immunity. I believe the term you ment was “herd” immunity. however even if that is what you meant, studies have shown that at this point, we already have that too, seeing as how many people had it while being asymptomatic. you don’t need a vaccine for herd immunity and you can’t have natural immunity after being vaccinated.
number 3. from what we know of know of vaccine and virus, you can get, spread, and die from covid even after vaccination. however the actual rate of death and hospitalization is microscopic. I have scientific studies that show the survivability rate of random people aged 20 to 29 years old is 99.995%. and we aren’t talking about random people, we are talking about professional athletes. now is where the “risk/reward” analysis comes in. to say this vaccine is completely safe is just completely ignorant. this vaccine has literally been banned in all nordic countries for people under 60 because of the risk of heart conditions. Myocarditis has been very prevalent among vaccinated individuals. go take a look at VAERS. only 1% of vaccine injuries get reported, and let’s just say that even the numbers that have been reported so far don’t look safe at all.
number 4) funny you bring up children because more children have died from the vaccine so far than from covid throughout this whole pandemic. the virus literally doesn’t hurt kids. it simply doesn’t. this virus has an average death age of above 80 years old. so when you say that unvaccinated individuals shouldn’t go around kids, you just sound ignorant. especially considering the fact that we established earlier that the vaccine doesn’t stop transmission. and with that being said, then why should the vaccinated be allowed near other people who can’t get vaccinated? they can still get and spread covid, and studies show that the vaccinated are actually spreading it more.
number 5. ultimately, people like you are just ignorant and too lazy to actually do any research of your own.
What laboratory do you conduct your own research at?
Which medical journals should I keep my eye on to find your research once published?
Or did you mean ignoring doctors and scientists to listen to roofers on Facebook? Rhetorical question.
@forwhomjoshbelltolled oh buddy I hope you weren’t referencing me with that comment. I know you said “rhetorical”, but I’ll educate you anyway. Comparing SARS-CoV-2 natural immunity to vaccine-induced immunity: reinfections versus breakthrough infections
link to medrxiv.org Infection fatality rate of COVID-19 in community-dwelling populations with emphasis on the elderly: An overview
link to medrxiv.org Durability of SARS-CoV-2-specific T cell responses at 12-months post-infection
link to biorxiv.org Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States
link to link.springer.com Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost Nine of Ten COVID-19 Deaths
link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov California study finds that vaccinated individuals are more susceptible to COVID variant infections than unvaccinated.
link to medrxiv.org
Both sides have randoms reported as credited sources.
You’re a moron. This was painful to read. It’s not a vaccine if you can still catch it. Do you see people still running around with measles? No. Why you ask? Because there’s an actual vaccine for it. Please never comment on anything again. Ever. You’re the idiot you’re tired of.
Hall of Fame irony here. I’ll try anyway…
We don’t have measles because most people are vaccinated against it and, thus, we have herd immunity to it because no one made it their ill informed mission in life to fight against the measles vaccine.
Maybe because most people back then weren’t tricked by blogs with stolen graphics. Hint-serious medical sites don’t have Discus comment sections. FYI.
Marco Rossi just missed an entire season because of Covid complications… he was 19. Anti-vaccine advocate Josh Archibald’s career might be over because of Covid. Archibald’s teammate Alex Stalock was already out for the season because of Covid, yet he still trusted “his own reasearch” and now may never play professional hockey again. There’s only one side with politically motivated lies in this situation, and I’m looking right at all you anti-vaccine morons.
That’s the thing I don’t understand. It seems like people just focus strictly at deaths and how barely any young people died from it. What about the effects it has left behind on them? You have some good examples, and there’s plenty more across sports alone. Im a big MMA fan and it seems like every card there is a fighter or two who had to take months off from training just because they physically couldn’t. I’m sure its even worse among those who aren’t in top shape like professional athletes.
Or maybe the measles vaccine works.
Josh, how many inoculations from polio or measels did people get when the vaccines were first made available? You know the answer (hint, it was less than two).
Thank you, wiyasm, for providing actual science here. It’s hard to penetrate the CNN/MSNBC crowd though.
Careful this website is extremely biased and strikes down factual information.
Evidently, the anthem singer of the Lightning spent months in the hospital and almost died of Covid. This is good news for people who think she and other people like her should live.
Hamonic is an interesting case. IIRC, he one of the few who sat out using the health exemption? He might have a real medical concern.
Is Archibald one of the 4 or is he now off the list due to his heart illness?
Always can count on Josh bell for a quality comment
A mother of two in Oregon did die after being pressured to get vaxxed. This is bad news for anyone. Or at least one would think so.
He’s a clown
Like the 58 year old man who died just hours after being vaccinated…after being T boned by a tractor trailer…that one of those vaccinated people on the TV who tells you not to get vaccinated mentioned…without mentioning the part about the Mack truck?
“This is good news for people who think she and other people like her should live.”
There was a reason I made this distinction. I don’t presume to speak for the people who don’t care.
99% of NHL players do. That’s good to see.
Can you tell specifically who that man on TV that tells people not to get vaccine?
Can you now tell us how many died from covid but we later found out the cause of death was not covid! Give us those numbers also if we want to be fair and partial rather than mention one tragedy that sounds like total bullshit!
ever hear the story of the pro division 1 college football player who was told he had to get vaccinated or he was off the team, then he immediately developed myocarditis from the vaccine and is now unable to ever play football again? oh yeah no you’re just gonna mention one story of someone getting sick from covid then acting like that doesn’t happen 99% of the time.
The good part of this is that forced vaccination crowd will have a hard time blaming the unvaxxed for these positive test results. Though they will try.
But you can always blame the 0.5% so why bother with stupid stuff like cOmMoN sEnSe and lOgIc? Amirite?
oh you betcha
Josh Archibald isn’t vaxed. That is 5.
Josh Archibald may be one of the 2 that are not reported in the story.
Guys relax those vaxed going forward will have complications going forward. The numbers are gossed heavily but theres a lot of literature suggesting that the numbers of those dumb enough to be vaxed are low. (Very easy to get dodgy paperwork)
20,000+ covid vaccination related deaths according the Vaers which only reports 10 percent of those either seriously injured due to shot or dead. Guess those peoples lives don’t matter either but the excuse that we have had other vaccines to cure disease is laughable when all those oth vaccines accounted to a whooping 50 deaths due to complications TOTAL. Only reason covid vax isn’t pulled is because we are under state of emergency. Typically side effect or long term problems won’t show for 5-10 years….remember the complications of the vax are clotting and strokes, how would we know someone died natural from a stroke or due to vax.
Where are you seeing 20,000+ vaccination related deaths? You really think 95% of people will have complications going forward? You think that people would be given this vaccine if there was a chance that 95% of people in the world would be negatively effected by it? That’s so insanely ridiculous