NHL Exec Says Having Unvaccinated Players Could Make Things Very Difficult for NHL Clubs

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

• Youtube: Beer League Heroes Channel
• Twitter: @beerleagueheroe
• Instagram: @beerleagueheroes
• Facebook: Beer League Heroes

The Cult of Hockey

Might this be the season Edmonton Oilers deploy a “three-headed monster” in goal?

• In recent seasons the Oilers have typically gone with five netminders with NHL-class contracts playing within the organization. Two on the big club, two more in the AHL, and a young guy sopping up pro minutes in the ECHL. Right now, though, they have a guy for each of those roles and one more besides.
  • Mike Smith enters camp as the clear #1, having won the job convincingly a year ago, then landing a two-year extension with a nice raise.
  • Mikko Koskinen has a larger cap hit outstanding on the one remaining year of his contract than Smith does in his two years combined.
  • Alex Stalock was picked up on waivers on Mar 01, the last of a dizzying series of moves searching for that elusive taxi squad goalie.
  • Stuart Skinner is coming off a splendid season that saw him spend time in the NHL as a backup, play (and win) his first big league game, then lead Bakersfield Condors to the Pacific Division crown.
  • Ilya Konovalov was drafted as a nearing 21-year-old in 2019 when he still had two years to run on his contract in the KHL.
  • Olivier Rodrigue turned pro in the chaos of 2021, splitting time between the Austrian league and the AHL.

“Right now I’m planning that we’re going to carry two goalies, but based upon the circumstances maybe we carry three but I think ideally I’d like to carry two.” – Ken Holland, Oilers GM

• Last time the Oilers tried it with three healthy netminders in the rotation for any length of time was way back in 2005-06, when Jussi Markkanen, Ty Conklin, and Mike Morrison held the fort for several months before GM Craig MacTavish traded for a true #1 (Roloson) at the deadline.
• 82 games will be played in 6½ months. Subtract out a three-week break for the Olympics and what remains is a relentless grind. There are seven back-to-backs on the current edition of the slate and numerous cases of games every other day for weeks on end. There are 15 games in December followed by 15 more in January. Twice the club embarks on an EIGHT-game road trip.

BLH’s Thoughts: If I’m reading between the lines of what’s been talked about the last couple of days on Oilers talk radio and with COVID Delta running wild throughout North America, I believe the league may institute a temporary roster expansion for each team to carry a 3rd goalie and it makes sense considering the circumstances, right?

Oilersnation

Uncertainty for Unvaccinated Players

• Earlier this month the NHL and NHLPA announced new COVID protocols for the upcoming season. The biggest change was the ability for teams to suspend unvaccinated players who are “unable to participate in club activities.” Those players would forfeit the equivalent of one day’s pay for each day they are precluded from participating.
• If an unvaccinated player tests positive and has to be quarantined away from the team, he will miss pay for the entirety of his quarantine. And on top of that, situations where a player cannot travel because of local, provincial (state) and/or federal regulations upon returning home will also be suspendable situations.
• …considering Canada goes to the polls next Monday, there is a chance the current government will not be in power, so who knows what the rules the new government will implement.
• Some teams are fully vaccinated, like the Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes, so it will be interesting to see which teams might be impacted the most with unvaccinated players.
• Another NHL executive put it bluntly when I asked about the challenges of having an unvaccinated player on the roster this season: “It will be difficult to run a team if a player is unavailable for select games.”
• For Canadian teams, their players would need to be fully vaccinated by the time they re-enter Canada.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve not much to say on this one. Get your needle, welcome yourself back to normality and let’s get health care back to where it needs to be. When children are having life altering surgeries pushed back because somebody’s decided not to get their vaccination and has been admitted, the priorities seem off there. 

That’s just my thought but if somebody doesn’t want to do it, you can’t force them. You just have to allow them to live their lives under some pretty restrictive rules while everybody else gets to go back to what they were doing before.

Comedian Bill Burr has a pretty funny take on the pro-pandemic conspiracies,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znI046F4FKg

The Athletic

The 2022 NHL Draft: Wheeler ranks his top 32 prospects in preseason

BLH’s Thoughts: Early on, I’ve got my eyes of Juraj Slafkovsky, Ty Nelson, Tristan Luneau, Connor Geekie, and Joakim Kemell from this list. I’m going to try and get a video out on the BLH Hockey YouTube page for most of these prospects if I can. So far I’ve posted ones on Shane Wright, Matthew Savoie (Above), Brad Lambert, and Danila Yurov. 

As it pertains to the Oilers, I’m hoping they’re selecting closer to 25th overall, so that’s probably where I’ll be focusing my attention with regards to the draft, but man, there are some electrifying players available next summer.