The NHL Expects To Be Near 100% Vaccinated Before The Puck Drops

Deputy commissioner Billy Daly estimates that 98% of NHL players will be vaccinated when the season begins Oct. 12. That means somewhere between 10 and 15 players out of roughly 700 remain unvaccinated.

"People can make their own decisions, but the right one would be to get vaccinated," Jacob Trouba said, who was the first NHL player vaccinated. "I think it's great that it's come this way, and hopefully we get 15 more guys vaccinated."

The league did not impose a vaccine mandate, however it appears that drastic restrictions like the inability to cross the Canadian border without quarantine impacted results.

"We weren't really trying to convince each other one way or the other, Los Angeles defensiveman Drew Doughty said. "But then I think when the NHL released that statement that you lose pay and stuff like that, that kind of changed some guys' minds."

This isn't right, despite the clapping of the pro-vaccination players. According to science, the vaccine doesn't stop players from contracting the virus. Leagues are admitting to that fact, and their one claim to convince everyone to get jabbed is to relinquish protocols and to diminish the severity of a vaccinated player's individual stint with COVID. Why would a player lose pay for choosing against a vaccine where his decline would only impact his own health?

If the vaccinated hypothetically couldn't spread from the vaccinated, then fining players that will inevitably impact his teammates' futures makes sense. This is simply not the case. Players like Jacob Trouba are celebrating compliance despite players not consenting until their livelihood was on the line. Openly admitting to pressuring the unvaccinated with discipline void of common sense. A technique that President Biden admitted he would use on the American people, remember?

We'd have to imagine the NHL reaches their 100% vaccination mark by the start of the season and we look forward to how they move the goalposts when they do. Will they suddenly add conditions that the booster jabs are required by a given date or you'll face punishment as if you never got vaccinated at all? Who are we kidding? Of course they will.