The Philadelphia Flyers are not unique, as they now have a player on the NHL’s COVID protocol list.
Announced by the team on Saturday morning, forward Max Willman, along with a staff member, has entered the league’s protocol.
Medical update: Flyers forward Max Willman and a staff member have been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol.
Flyers goaltender Carter Hart is unavailable for tonight’s game due to an undetermined illness.
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 18, 2021
What this essentially means — if you’re not way too familiar with the process for the last year of professional hockey — is that Willman and the staff member has either tested positive or has had close contact with a confirmed positive case.
Willman has bounced between the AHL and NHL all season long, playing a dozen games in the majors and 13 with Lehigh Valley. The 26-year-old is coming off a feel-good game against the Montreal Canadiens, where he scored his second goal of the season, making it three points in his last four games. After being selected in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Draft by the Buffalo Sabres, Willman played out four years at Brown University and a fifth collegiate year at Boston University, before turning professional and signing with the Flyers as a free agent. He made his NHL debut earlier this season.
Also included in the release is the fact that Carter Hart will not be playing on Saturday against the Ottawa Senators, after coming down with an undetermined — and assumingly non-COVID related — illness. It is unconfirmed, but one would have to expect Martin Jones in between the pipes and then a recall of a Phantoms netminder.
Both Ottawa and Philadelphia have been recently lucky with the chaos of virus-forced postponements around the NHL. Although the Senators had to go a week or so without playing earlier, both clubs have largely avoided the more recent outbreaks and this might just be one of the few games that will actually be taking place.
In other news, Joel Farabee appears to have returned from injury — just in time — and will be playing on a line with Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny.
Lines and pairings at practice:
Farabee-Couturier-Konecny
Lindblom-Giroux-Atkinson
Laughton-Hayes-JvR
Cates-Brown-MacEwenProvorov-Braun
Sanheim-Ristolainen
Yandle-ConnautonBrassard taking rushes as an extra.
— Charlie O’Connor (@charlieo_conn) December 18, 2021
Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m.
