David E. Klutho-USA TODAY Sports
With the threat of COVID-19 continuing to linger over the sporting world, the IIHF has reportedly made the decision to prepare contingency plans for nations as they head to Beijing for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.
According to a report from TSN’s Darren Dreger on Monday morning, the IIHF will permit each nation participating in the upcoming tournament to carry an extra six players to play in the event that their roster is depleted by injury or a COVID-19 outbreak.
In equal terms, teams participating in the Olympic Games this year will effectively carry taxi squads, much like NHL teams currently do, in an effort to hopefully prevent any cancelations or forfeiting of games as a result of multiple positive COVID-19 tests on a single roster, as was seen at the World Junior Championship earlier this month.
With nations currently being in the process of unveiling their official 25-man rosters over the past two weeks, no word has been revealed yet on which players will be selected for their respective taxi squads. But with the opening ceremony only a few weeks away, it’s likely that some form of an announcement will be given in the near future.
While it may be under less-than-ideal circumstances, affording an extra six players per country a chance to potentially participate in the Olympics is a nice little development.
