The NHL COVID protocol list added three more players today. Forward Casey Mittelstadt, and defencemen Samuel Girard and Travis Sanheim have all been added to their respective team’s protocol lists.
Mittelstadt, Girard, and Sanheim Added to NHL COVID Protocol List
Within the last two weeks the NHL has had to suspend many scheduled games due to a sharp uptick in league-wide positive COVID tests. These three players are a few in a recent surge of added names to the league’s growing protocol list. Just this week there were a handful of teams, including the Buffalo Sabres and the Colorado Avalanche, that had their scheduled games postponed through the beginning of this coming week.
This season for the Sabres Mittelstadt has appeared in two contests for the team. In this time he has picked up one assist. Mittelstadt has spent the bulk of the season not playing on the NHL roster. This season he was expected to improve his point totals.
Girard is playing in his fourth season for the Avalanche. Through 11 games played this year he has scored one goal and eight assists for nine points. He is apart of a stacked blue line in Colorado this season that includes Cale Makar and Devon Toews.
This season on the Philadelphia Flyers Travis Sanheim has appeared in 12 games and scored one goal and four assists. He has established himself as a top-four option on the Flyers blueline this season. His absence will surely be felt in the team’s defensive game.
What This Means for the Future
Buffalo losing Mittelstadt isn’t too much of a loss to the lineup. He hasn’t had a meaningful impact on the team for quite some time. For Colorado and Philadelphia, however, both of these losses will be felt. Girard wasn’t playing any games recently due to his teams current pause due to the uptick in positive tests on the team. With that being said, however, if he is out past the end of the team’s pause his absence on the blue line could prove costly for the teams defensive effectiveness.
For Sanheim and the Flyers, he was absent from the team’s 7-4 win against the Washington Capitals on February 7th. The team isn’t under a COVID pause yet, however, with him being added to their list it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to postpone a few games in the near future.
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