The National Hockey League shut down temporarily in the midst of another COVID-19 surge. The American Hockey League has also seen several games postponed and even the Gulls, who last year was the only franchise to play its entire schedule, have been impacted.
San Diego's match against Henderson at Pechanga Arena that was set for Wednesday night is going to be rescheduled. It's the 3rd straight game the Gulls have missed due to the Omicron variant. Makeup dates have not been decided yet and it's unsure whether or not they'll play their next game on New Year's Eve in Tucson.
When they do get back on the ice they won't have some of their best players, the Anaheim Ducks will. Well, sort of.
The NHL stopped play on Tuesday, December 21. The league is going to try and start up games again on Tuesday, December 28 and when they do they'll have a taxi squad in tow.
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Similar to what Major League Baseball has done since 2020 each NHL team will be allowed to have an extra group of five players available. They won't be officially on the roster but they will travel with the team and can be immediately activated if a club has fewer than 20 players (12 forwards, six defensemen, two goalies) available. The Ducks announced their taxi squad on Monday and it's made up entirely of guys who have been big contributors in San Diego this season:
Lukas Dostal - Goaltender
Jacob Larsson - Defenseman
Vinni Lettieri – Right Wing
Greg Pateryn - Defenseman
Buddy Robinson – Right Wing
The NHL plans on utilizing the taxi squad through the All-Star break the first weekend in February but could extend or contract that time frame if needed.
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There's one other thing that might be altering the Gulls roster in the next few weeks: the Olympics.
Since they've had to reschedule so many games the NHL has announced it will not be sending its players to Beijing for the 2022 games. That means each of the 12 nations in the tournament will have to field new rosters filled with guys not currently on National Hockey League rosters or on one-way contracts in the American Hockey League (a one-way contract means a player is paid one salary while on an AHL roster and another with an NHL club).
Several Gulls fall under that category, including assists leader Nikolas Brouillard (who could play defense for Canada) and left winger Alex Limoges (a Virginia native). Most national hockey federations expect to have their new teams set by the middle of January.
