After the Calgary Flames lost their best player via free agency — despite offering him more money than the team he signed for — former Flames player Mike Commodore suggested that Johnny Gaudreau left because of Canada’s strict COVID measures.
“Gaudreau and his wife just spent the last two years in COVID Canada. Endless lockdowns, restrictions, mandates, vax passports, curfews, empty arenas, etc… how quickly we forget… Health officials [are] already fear-mongering about what’s coming this fall….” Commodore tweeted.
To be fair, Gaudreau hasn’t said this. Moreover, it’s unclear if Commodore is merely speculating or if he has insider knowledge of what Gaudreau — or players in the league more generally — think about playing in Canada, given the country’s strict COVID measures.
After signing with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Gaudreau penned a letter to Calgary fans, saying that leaving the city was a family decision. ‘Johnny Hockey’ didn’t single out Canada’s COVID policies as a reason for doing so, though he did say that flying home to visit his family in New Jersey became “tougher with the pandemic.”
Gaudreau scored 115 points last year for the Flames, second only to Connor McDavid in the entire NHL. After their season ended, Calgary’s brass tried to re-sign him before he became a free agent, to no avail.
“They’ve put an offer on the table that would not only make Johnny Gaudreau the richest player in Calgary Flames history but on top of that one of the select few highest-paid players in the NHL today,” said NHL insider Frank Seravalli.
Whatever the offer was, he didn’t take it. Instead, Gaudreau signed with the Blue Jackets on a 7-year deal at $9.75 million per year, instead of the reported 8-year contract with the Flames at $10 million per year.
Two years ago, when the NHL hosted the playoffs in the ‘Edmonton Bubble’ — with no fans and where players had no access to the outside world, including their families — players compared the bubble to a prison.
“The fence that boxed us in, that made you feel like you were in more of a prison, kind of like an animal,” one player said at the time.
“Just the feeling of it. There’s no other way to separate you from the outside world in a safe way, but it was an eye-opener when guys pulled up to the hotel.”
You could say this level of COVID restrictions is long gone, but Canada’s health authorities seem to enjoy threatening Canadians that they could return any day now.
Indeed, Canada has developed a reputation for having some of the strictest COVID policies in the world and stories from the Edmonton Bubble, and Canada’s strict COVID policies could have lingering effects.
And so could Ryan Whitney’s viral rant from weeks ago. The former Edmonton Oiler took to Twitter to vent while he was stuck in what he called “the worst place on earth,” which happened to be Toronto’s International Airport.
And yes, Canada’s COVID policies were part of the reason for the delays at the airport.
To this point, Canada just re-introduced random testing at the airports for vaccinated individuals. So while other countries are opening up completely, we’re going backwards — and athletes know it.
As for Canada’s only Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays lost their best pitcher last year to free agency, with strong speculation being that it was because of his vaccination status.
Robbie Ray, who won the Cy Young award (best pitcher in the league) last season as a member of the Blue Jays, signed with Seattle this past off-season, much to the dismay of fans.
When Seattle Mariners came to play in Toronto a few weeks back, Ray stayed home, presumably because of Canada’s continued medical apartheid. He wasn’t allowed to come.
“Boy, oh boy, I’ll tell you what — don’t accuse me of changing the narrative again — but vaccination is going to be a fascinating part of the rest of this season. Who’s traded?” said Dave Hodge on The Bob McCown podcast.
“Robbie Ray is unvaccinated, right? We understand that.”
Indeed, we do — and so do athletes understand the reputation that “COVID Canada” has earned.
