Zach Aston-Reese tested positive for COVID-19 and has entered the league's protocol, Mike Sullivan announced following Monday's morning skate before the Penguins' preseason opener.
Per the NHL's COVID protocols for this season, a player who is a confirmed positive case must remain in isolation until the following conditions are met:
• If at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared, and at least 24 hours have passed since last fever without the use of fever-reducing medications, and symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath, etc.) have improved (with the exception of continued loss of taste or smell so long as other symptoms have improved
• In addition, the Club Physician, its infectious disease expert, and any other treating physician providing care to the individual, must conclude that the individual no longer presents a risk of infection to others, and that it is medically appropriate (given individual and local circumstances) to terminate the requirement for self-isolation.
• The termination of the isolation requirement is consistent with applicable local public health regulations or other requirements.
That leaves open the possibility that Aston-Reese could play when the Penguins open the season Oct. 12 in Tampa, Fla.
"What I will tell you is that we have so much faith in our medical staff and our team doctors," Sullivan said. "These guys are on top of this stuff, and I think they do a terrific job behind the scenes. We'll follow the NHL protocols, we'll monitor the contact tracing and all of those things that are associated with the protocols."
On Thursday's opening day of training camp, Ron Hextall said that the Penguins have just one player who isn't yet fully vaccinated, but they expect him to be fully vaccinated "in the next few weeks." Aston-Reese has done media availability in training camp without a mask, so it's safe to say that he has been vaccinated and this is a breakthrough case because a mask would have been required in that setting if he were unvaccinated.
This is the first in-season COVID case the Penguins have had that wasn't a false positive since the start of the pandemic, something Sullivan said was "remarkable."
"We're keeping our fingers crossed that it stops there," he said. "We'll update you guys as we go here, but we're going to trust that our medical team is going to do the right thing for all of us."
