On September 13th, 2021 the Western States Hockey League announced they will require all players to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The three vaccines that they are requiring and/or accepting are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson.
The topic that we are discussing at TJHP is whether or not this is a way for the WSHL to have an exit strategy for the 2021-22 season. As discussed in recent weeks on The Junior Hockey Podcast, the WSHL has very low roster numbers in their Northwest Division. Teams are currently at a point where they do not have enough players to play a game and are going to struggle even more given the amount of time they have before the season starts in late October to acquire and sign players.
Could this be a way for them to cancel the 2021-22 season and blame it on Vaccines and COVID-19?
I believe that this could be a way for the WSHL to “save face” and eventually have a way out of the 2021-22 season even though the real reason they will not be able to play is due to the fact that they cannot fill rosters. My opinion is that they will, during the month of October, end up saying the following…
The WSHL is going to go dormant during the 2021-22 season due to the fact that they believe in the safety of their players and given that they could not get players vaccinated against COVID-19, they do not wish to proceed with the season so that they can keep their players safe.
In my opinion, it all lines up. They are panicking with the low roster numbers and they need a way out while saving face and not showing that they cannot bring players in. They will ultimately want to come up with the best excuse in order to return to play for the 2022-23 junior hockey season, which will be hopefully more planned out.
My thought process through all of this is that the WSHL downfall will be more so related to the low roster numbers, not COVID-19 or even the COVID Vaccine Mandate that they implemented. Then again, this is just one person’s opinion, so we will have to wait and see what direction they take.
TJHP will continue to follow up on the status of the WSHL 2021-22 season and keep you updated.
