Five Avs players suddenly deemed “unfit”…Is Covid-19 to blame?

The big news coming out of today’s open of training camp is that five Avalanche were suddenly deemed “unfit” to participate in Day 1 of on-ice activity this morning. According to Avs head coach Jared Bednar, that list includes captain Gabe Landeskog and his new-comer linemate Brandon Saad, as well as Erik Johnson, Philipp Grubauer and Keaton Middleton.

Following yesterday’s team meetings and media day festivities, Bednar confirmed that everyone was healthy and “fit” heading into the team’s first on-ice practices on Monday, adding “everyone’s done their quarantines and are ready to hit the ice tomorrow as a team.” So this “unfit” news comes as a bit of surprise.

“I don’t know what the protocols are or when they’re going to be back there,” Bednar said after Group 2’s session on Monday. “They’re unfit to practice today.

“Tomorrow morning, I’ll get news if they’re fit or not. There are different situations and I’m not allowed to relay when exactly there.”

Scrolling though the Avs media day pictures, we can confirm Landeskog, Saad and Grubauer were all there, taking pictures, filming their jumbotron media hits and participating in interviews and other various team activities. Given Bednar did not mention any injuries yesterday and mentioned “guys are all rested and healthy and excited to get the season started,” could we deduce that these absences are covid-related? It’s certainly possible.

If it were covid-related, wouldn’t the team need to shutdown camp due to exposure concerns at Sunday’s media day? Just something to think about.

The last thing the Avs need during a very condensed training camp is for the league to shutdown their camp for protocol concerns…

Update: Per a league source, the NHL will release an aggregate covid-positive list at the end of training camp. Once the regular season starts, however, the league will begin identifying positive cases by player’s name as they become known. The source also added that if a facility were to be shutdown due to positive cases and exposure, that is a “matter of public record” and will be public knowledge immediately.

Other notes from Day 1 of training camp:

Day 2 of camp starts at 10:15 a.m. MT on Tuesday. We’ll get updates from Avs coach Bednar shortly thereafter on the five “unfits”. If not sooner…