NHL making big changes to COVID protocols

New protocols will begin after the All-Star Game.

Various outlets are reporting on Tuesday that the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to stop administering COVID-19 tests to players who are asymptomatic after Feb. 3.

The league’s current COVID-19 protocols expected to remain in place until Feb. 3, however.

Hearing NHL/NHLPA agreeing on no longer testing asymptomatic players and staff after All-Star. At that point, testing only required for cross-border travel and if a person develops symptoms.

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 18, 2022

Also, the NHL will only mandate that players are tested before accompanying their team on cross-border travel to/from Canada.

The NHL and NHLPA are expected to meet on Jan. 31 to finalize these changes.

More than 100 games have been postponed because over 70 percent of players have tested positive for COVID-19 during the 2021-22 regular season already.

The NHL and NHLPA also pulled out of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in large part because of concerns about COVID.

As many teams near the mid-point of their regular season, the NHL is hoping to move forward with fewer games needing to be moved. Some teams, specifically the New York Islanders, have a number of games that need to be made up.

The NHL plans to use the scheduled break in February that would have been when players were in Beijing to reschedule some of the games that had been postponed.