NHLPA begins to pressure players to get the vaccine.

Though the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association have not yet enforced a vaccine mandate, at least not on their players, it sounds like there is a clear plan moving forward and that is to get as many people vaccinated as humanly possible.

A recent report from NHL insiders Mike Russo and Katie Strang has revealed that the NHLPA has begun to pressure its members to get vaccinated prior to the start of the 2021 - 2022 regular season, and it would appear that those pressures include some that are financial in nature. The report indicates that sometime last week NHL players would have been "strongly encouraged" by the Players Association during a lengthy call to get fully vaccinated, encouragement that reportedly included warnings about potential loss of pay should their vaccination status preclude them from playing.

Now to be clear I don't think the NHLPA is being entirely unreasonable here given the challenges that the league faces as a truly international sports product. The NHL will return to it's normal divisional alignment for the 2021 - 2022 NHL regular season which means that players on American teams will be forced to cross the border into Canada, and vice versa, while playing out the season schedule. Currently the Canadian government enforces a full 14 day quarantine on anyone, including Canadian citizens, entering the country without proof of vaccination and this will no doubt apply to the players in the NHL as well. If players are unable to travel to a venue or even a country, where they are expected to play for their paychecks, due to the restrictions imposed at the local or federal level, should NHL teams be allowed to withhold that paycheck? It sounds like this scenario, or one caused by an unvaccinated player contracting COVID-19 could in fact lead to loss of pay for NHL players this season.

It would appear that there is an ongoing, league-wide, effort to get everyone vaccinated prior to the start of next season and given the different restrictions in each state, province, and country I can certainly see why the NHL is moving in this direction. Just last week former NHL player Sean Avery reported that the league had mandated a vaccine from personnel at the NHL offices in New York, adding that failure to do so would lead to termination of employment.

At the end of the day it does remain a personal choice however, and it will be interesting to see what consequences may come of this next season.