Players to boycott All-Star Game, NHL and NHLPA to hold urgent meeting

With the COVID pandemic still going strong and disturbing the course of the 2021-22 season, Darren Dreger reports that some star players are considering the idea of not attending the All-Star Game in Las Vegas in February.

This is how he explained on last night’s edition of Insider Trading on TSN:

“There are some players, or rumblings of some players, who are considering taking the All-Star Weekend off. And they may use their concerns over COVID-19 as part of the ammunition to defend their case for taking the weekend off. Remember, there is a policy in place. It’s been there a while. The NHL can suspend the invited player who is deemed healthy one game coming out of the All-Star Weekend if they do not participate.”

While the insider did not mention any players’ names at the moment, you have to wonder if some are ones who expected to attend the Winter Games in Beijing before the NHL decided not to send them due to the ongoing pandemic and risks on the 2021-22 season. This could be seen as a boycott, a way to get back at the league.

Dreger mentioned how the NHL and its Players Association are meeting today to talk about the event and all things leading up to it:

“Now, there is an NHL and NHL Players’ Association conference call Friday that is to talk about all things All-Star related. It’ll be interesting to see if this item comes up.”

There will be more to come on this, no doubt.