Five Vancouver Canucks are out of tonight’s lineup with suspected cases of mumps.
Only one player, defenseman Troy Stecher, has received a confirmed diagnosis of the virus. The other four—Markus Granlund, Michael Chaput, Christopher Tanev and Nikita Tryamkin—have shown symptoms and are being quarantined in isolation for a five-day period or until they definitively test negative for mumps.
The players went into quarantine yesterday; as of Saturday afternoon, there are no new diagnoses. The rest of the team is being tested for the virus and vaccinated if needed, alongside other preventative measures. A representative from Vancouver Coastal Health said yesterday that of the five players currently affected, only one has received a full set of vaccinations. But as the NHL’s last mumps outbreak showed, vaccination isn’t always a protection against the virus.
While the Canucks are the only NHL team currently afflicted by mumps, they’re not the only hockey team—in Alberta, the Medicine Hat Tigers of the Western Hockey League have been dealing with a similar situation this week.