Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan McLeod placed in COVID-19 protocol; Head coach Dave Tippett out for precautionary reasons

The past couple of days have been a mess for the NHL.

Monday night’s bout between Calgary and Chicago was postponed as six players and one staff member on the Flames were put into COVID-19 protocol. On Tuesday, things blew up, as over 30 players around the league are now in protocol.

The Oilers announced early this afternoon that Ryan McLeod has been put in protocol. Shortly after that, Frank Seravalli reported that a member of Edmonton’s coaching staff could be joining him and that the team was re-testing to confirm it wasn’t a false positive.

The member of the coaching staff going into protocol is head coach Dave Tippett.

The Edmonton Oilers have also activated defenceman Duncan Keith from the injured reserve and recalled forward Brendan Perlini.

We don’t yet know if any of Edmonton’s upcoming games will be postponed. If the schedule continues as planned, Tippett and McLeod will likely also miss Thursday’s game with the Blue Jackets and Saturday’s game with the Kraken. In order to come out of the protocol, players and staff must produce back-to-back negative tests 24 hours apart.

As noted by TSN 1260’s Tom Gazzola, Glen Gulutzan is likely to take over behind the bench.