Steve Yzerman calls out the NHL over its Covid testing policy.

The National Hockey League has just been called out, and considering the man doing the calling out I suspect they are going to have to hear him out at the very least.

As all of you reading this will know already, the NHL has been dealing with a massive number of positive cases around the league as a result of it's Covid testing policy and it would appear as though at least one NHL general manager has seen enough. On Saturday it was announced that 5 members of the Detroit Red Wings have been added to the NHL's Covid protocol list, 3 players and 2 coaches. It would seem as though that news did not sit particularly well with Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman, who is now letting the NHL hear about it.

According to a report from Brad Galli of WXYZ Detroit, Yzerman openly called into question the league's policy around testing its players. The implication of this would appear to be that Yzerman feels the league is testing too much, resulting in a number of positive tests that are forcing asymptomatic players out of action. Yzerman's objections appear to be focused around the testing of vaccinated players who are showing no symptoms at the time of testing, a practice that I suspect Yzerman would prefer to see the NHL move away from.

Additionally Yzerman appeared to call into question how serious of a threat Covid would be to vaccinated players when he mentioned that most cases around the league this season have been at worst a mild cold.

I have to be honest here. I think any other player or general manager making a statement such as this would normally face some backlash from a certain segment of the NHL's fan base, but Yzerman is such a thoughtful individual and a well respected legend of the sport that I genuinely believe his comments will give the NHL pause and possibly even reason to reconsider how they have been operating thus far.

As for how his team plans to deal with the news that 5 members of the Red Wings have been sidelined today, Yzerman says they will do what they and everyone other team in the league has done all season long.

“We just keep recalling players. Other teams have gone through this before us,” he said.