Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman is reporting that the NHL is telling players who need visa extensions to play in the postseason to return to their home cities by June 21. This would require certain foreign players to return to North America 19 days before the potential start of Phase 3, training camps, on July 10.
Most player visas expire on June – the final day of NHL contracts and the end of the league’s calendar year.
The league’s calendar “ends” on June 30, and visas expire at that time. Since the pandemic makes it extremely difficult for the quick process of renewals, players were told in a memo “it is essential that you return as soon as possible to give your club enough time to process a renewal application on your behalf.”
The worry is that players who do not return over the next week will have difficulty entering North America in time for the potential opening of training camps on July 10.
One Capitals player who needs his visa renewed is Capitals goaltender Ilya Samsonov. The rookie goaltender revealed his visa expired on April 6th during an Instagram Live chat in April. Samsonov returned to Russia and his hometown of Magnitogorsk during the coronavirus pandemic.
Other Capitals players that are known to have left North America include Jakub Vrana, Michal Kempny, Radko Gudas, Martin Fehervary, Carl Hagelin, Jonas Siegenthaler, and Dmitry Orlov.
Capitals players who recently participated in small group workouts at MedStar Capitals Iceplex include Braden Holtby, John Carlson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Lars Eller. Alex Ovechkin is skating in Florida near his Miami beach home.
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB
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