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NHL announces COVID-19 protocols for 2022-23 season

By Max Molski

NHL announces COVID-19 protocols for 2022-23 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

The NHL and NHL Players’ Association announced their COVID-19 protocols for the 2022-23 season on Wednesday.

The protocols note that both the U.S. and Canada have travel quarantine restrictions that may keep unvaccinated individuals from crossing into the other country or force them into quarantine. Per the new protocols, teams are permitted to suspend unvaccinated players who are unable to participate in team activities due to their vaccination status. In those situations, teams can also force those players to forfeit pay for each day they are absent. Otherwise, any player who tests positive will continue to be paid for as long as they are unavailable to participate in team activities.

Players cannot be denied from participating in team activities based on their vaccination status unless protocols or government/health authorities call for it. Suspensions and fines also cannot be handed to unvaccinated players who have a medical or religious exemption. 

Players who show COVID-19 symptoms must take a rapid test and quarantine while awaiting the test’s status. Those players must test daily for three days if the first test is negative.

For players who test positive, individuals who are asymptomatic can exit isolation within the first five days once they have two consecutive negative test results. For individuals who were symptomatic and in quarantine between six and nine days, they can exit isolation with one negative test result as long as it comes more than 24 hours since their last fever. Anyone who exits quarantine in fewer than 10 days must wear a face covering until it has been 10 days since the positive test.

Additionally, any player who exhibits upper respiratory infection symptoms must undergo cardiac testing following isolation. 

As part of the 2022-23 protocols, organizations must disclose any positive COVID-19 cases from a player to the media. 

Training camp, game or even season postponement is still on the table as an available option. Commissioner Gary Bettman still has the power to postpone, delay or move training camp or a portion of the NHL season if the league or NHLPA believe continuing the season “would create or exacerbate a material risk to players’ or others’ health and safety and/or jeopardize the integrity of the competition anticipated during the 2022/23 season.”

NHL deputy commissioner hints at DC hosting future All-Star Game or draft

By Matt Weyrich
NHL deputy commissioner hints at future All-Star Game or draft in DC originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonWASHINGTON — In attendance for the Capitals’ ceremony to celebrate Alex Ovechkin moving into second place on the all-time goals list Tuesday, NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told reporters that Washington, D.C., could host an upcoming All-Star Game or NHL Draft.“Those events are awarded on a variety of factors,” Daly said in a scrum in the press box during the first intermission. “But as I said before, this town has a hockey market in particular. It’s off the charts now. So it’s just a matter of time.”The Capitals have hosted the All-Star Game once, in 1982 when they played at the Capital Centre in Landover. They've never hosted the NHL Draft. Washington’s prominence as a hockey market has grown ever since Ovechkin’s debut in 2005-06 with a surge in attendance that began in 2008-09 — the first season they broke 100 points with No. 8 manning the left wing.With the league already announcing the Nashville Predators’ Bridgestone Arena as the site for the 2023 NHL Draft and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Scotiabank Arena for All-Star Weekend, the earliest the Capitals could host either event is 2024.Ovechkin has three years remaining on his contract with the team after 2022-23, so the NHL still has time to capitalize on the 37-year-old’s presence before his deal is up. Daly said he expects Ovechkin to pass Wayne Gretzky's goals record of 894, though he doesn’t expect him to do it until the 2024-25 season at the earliest. He also added that Commissioner Gary Bettman plans to follow the Capitals around once Ovechkin pulls to within four of five goals of the mark.When asked how soon D.C. might host an All-Star game or draft, Daly told local beat reporters, "I think you guys will all be working." Given that some of the beat reporters have a few years on yours truly, a D.C. All-Star Game or NHL Draft may not be in the too-distant future.
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