The Minnesota Wild announced Monday that forward Marcus Foligno has entered the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols, which means he’ll be out for at least five days.
Taking Foligno’s spot on the roster is forward Mitchell Chafree, who has been called up to the big club from the Iowa Wild of the American Hockey League.
Losing Foligno this late in the season for any amount of time is a big deal. Minnesota (101 points) is one point behind St. Louis for second place in the Central Division. The Wild and Blues are all but locked in to face each other in the first round of the playoffs, with whoever finishes with more points getting home-ice advantage.
Minnesota has eight games left in the regular season, including three in the next five days, which Foligno will miss: Tuesday at Montreal, Thursday versus Vancouver and Friday at home against Seattle.
The NHL modified its COVID protocols in late December. They force vaccinated players who test positive for COVID-19 to:
- Isolate for five days;
- If the individual has a fever, continue to isolate until their fever resolves;
- If the individual has no symptoms or their symptoms are resolving after five days, they can leave isolation and return to practices and games, provided the following conditions are met:
- A lab-based PCR test that is negative, or a lab-based PCR test that has a CT value >30, or two negative molecular point of care tests collected >2 hours apart; and,
- Medical clearance from the individual’s Club physician; and,
- Such exit is permitted by their local health authority.
- The individual shall continue to always wear a mask around others for five additional days, other than for practices and games.
