Canadian, Western Hockey Leagues Adopt Vaccine Mandates for Teams

Monday, August 16th, the Canadian Hockey League, which oversees the WHL and Tri City Americans, announced effective immediately all teams will adopt a mandatory vaccine policy.

This policy will apply to (according to the CHL):

"In addition to players, the mandatory vaccination policy will apply to General Managers, Coaches, Head Scouts or Director of Player Personnel, Trainers, Equipment Managers, On-ice and Off-ice Consultants, On-ice Officials and ice level Off-ice Officials (penalty box attendants; timekeepers and scorekeepers) and any other individuals who interact directly and on a regular basis with players."

This will not affect public address announcers, music/presentation workers, and others in the PA booth; or any other gameday workers who do NOT have regular contact with the team.

Of course, this will NOT apply to fans.

WHL Commissioner Ron Robison had this comment:

“With travel restrictions currently in place with the Canada / U.S. border as well as the province of Manitoba, it is important all players and staff are fully vaccinated in order to be eligible to play a full season in the WHL..."

He also strongly suggested that players be staying with billets (host families) who are fully vaccinated.

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All the previously mentioned persons with the team must be fully vaccinated with a Canadian Health approved vaccine 14 days prior to the beginning of the 2021-22 CHL-WHL season, which starts Oct. 1st.

Even though the Americans and WHL will have a full regular-season schedule, there will be no intermingling of conferences. The Ams won't go on their annual Eastern or Central Division road swing, nor will those teams be coming here.

So, we will not be seeing teams such as Calgary, Prince Albert, Lethbridge, Saskatoon, or other Central or Eastern Division/Conference foes.

Aside from ten games vs. Prince George, Kelowna, Victoria, Kamloops, and Vancouver (the British Columbia Division) the rest of the entire schedule is vs. U.S. Division teams only. This will certainly amp up the Highway 395 rivalry vs. Spokane!