NHL Commissioner Says 'Four Players' Remain Unvaccinated as 2021 Season Kicks Off

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The NHL has all but four players who have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

On Tuesday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced that the league achieved more than 99 percent of vaccinated players by the season-opening game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Pittsburgh Penguins.

"Our vaccination rate is incredible," Bettman said. "Four players, not four percent of players. All of our officials are vaccinated. All of the personnel that comes into contact with the players are vaccinated."

The NHL doesn't require its athletes to receive the COVID vaccine, but the commissioner attributes the success rates to the cooperation between the league and the NHL Players' Association throughout the ongoing pandemic.

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"Throughout all of this, we had great collaboration and cooperation with the players and Players' Association," Bettman said. "This doesn't happen to get to this point without that collaboration and cooperation. Yes, the players have stepped up to get vaccinated, but even thinking about how the players had to function the last two years, to go into the bubble."

Bettman added, "Everybody banded together to do the right thing. Maybe that's why hockey is the ultimate team sport."

The NHL first announced last month that all but a few players would be fully vaccinated by the beginning of the regular season on Oct. 12.

"We've had some player reluctance on vaccination," NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said, according to a press release. "Our latest information is that reluctance is receding. Some players who were holdouts are going to go forward and get vaccinated, so hopefully at some point in the season we'll have 100 percent fully vaccinated."

Despite nearly reaching that vaccination goal, the league has still reported a number of breakthrough COVID cases and other instances where COVID protocols have halted athlete participation.

On Tuesday, the Seattle Kraken played their season opener against the Las Vegas Golden Knights but were missing four players — Jared McCann, Joonas Donskoi and Marcus Johansson, and Jamie Oleksiak — after they were added to the NHL's COVID protocol list, the New York Times reported.

"Things happen quickly and sometimes at inopportune times," coach Dave Hakstol told ESPN, keeping details vague about the reason. "There's different challenges as you go throughout the season and this is one of them for us early on."

Kraken's general manager told the outlet that the entire roster was vaccinated by the beginning of their training camp.

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For unvaccinated players, NHL teams have the right to suspend and dock the pay of a player if he's unable to play due to local, state or federal government guidelines. Unvaccinated players also have to quarantine while traveling for away games and must follow more intense mask, social-distancing and COVID testing requirements.

As of now, however, the NHL is touting its vaccination success and the beginning of the 2021-22 season.

"You never get 100 percent in this world," NHL Players' Association executive director Donald Fehr told USA Today Sports, "But we're pretty close."

Bettman also shared that due to the coronavirus' continued presence across the country, the league must "remain vigilant" as the season continues.

Breakthrough cases — COVID-19 infections that occur in people who have been fully vaccinated against the virus — are unlikely, but possible and expected, as the vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing infections. Still, vaccinated people who test positive will likely be asymptomatic or experience a far milder illness than if they were not vaccinated. The majority of deaths from COVID-19 — around 98 to 99% — are in unvaccinated people.