More than half of Vasily Podkolgin’s KHL team is infected with COVID-19

COVID-19 is dominated by Russia’s top hockey league, with Connex’s top prospect Vasily Podkolgin at risk.

While the NHL is carefully managing the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Final in the constraint bubble in Edmonton, the KHL is already well into the 2020-21 regular season. In the wake of the global epidemic, KHL felt they were ready to host a full-fledged season in the fields with inter-country travel and fans.

KHL went ahead with their plans 116 KHL players tested positive for COVID-19 Goes into the regular season.

Already, the KHL has run into significant problems, with multiple teams reporting positive COVID-19 cases. For example, the lone Latvian team in the league, Dinamo Riga, was unable to complete their first road trip through Russia when the game was postponed when one of their rivals, Baris Astana, reported 12 cases of COVID-19. When they returned to Latvia, Riga reported five positive cases of their own, with government officials enforcing detention and demanding that more games be postponed.

Earlier this week, locomotive Yaroslavl Kunlun missed a game against the Red Star. The locomotive did not confirm how many positive cases they had, but the entire team was detained.

In most cases, KHL teams with positive COVID-19 cases will not be detained and will replace their sick players with their junior team players instead. The same thing happened in the case of the Vasily Podkolgin team, SKA St. Petersburg.

Reports indicate “More than halfTested positive for COVID-19 on the list for SKA, their coaching staff did it earlier than the game against Siberia on Wednesday. As a result, SKA iced the youngest lineup in KHL history, with 10 players making their KHL debut.

Podcolgin is not one of the positive cases and is one of six young people in the SKA lineup.

With no coaches available, SKA Billionaire Vice President Roman Rottenberg stepped behind the bench as head coach.

Under these circumstances it is unbelievable that the game would even go ahead as scheduled. The league has come under fire for forcing Junior players through games and forcing Finland’s Jokerit Helsinki to lose to Minsk in Belarus amid their political turmoil.

In addition, KHL’s decision to keep fans on the field without enforcing strict social-distance or masks seems too foolish.

Here are a couple clips of the audience at today’s KHL game.

Although it is an almost complete arena, half of the team is infected with the Kovid-19 virus.

What is KHL doing? This is a scary scene to watch … pic.twitter.com/zxkI0qNweh

– 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 Faber (Chris Faber 39) September 23, 2020

For Canucks fans, the KHL ‘s concern for their players’ health is a big concern. Podkolgin, as the team’s top prospect, is a major part of the Cancs future. Contracting COVID-19 can have unintended consequences, as scientists are not yet aware of the long-term effects of the virus.

Meanwhile, the NHL should be very careful about the difficulties KHL faces with their regular season when making plans for their own 2020-21 season. They are not as susceptible to the dangers of COVID-19 as KHL.