I'm curious how strict the NHL's Stage 3 protocols are. If American teams even want to make it to Edmonton and Toronto for Stage 4 they need to be free of Covid cases before traveling across the border no? That would mean diligent quarantining measures should have already started and a decent number of NHL players aren't even in their team's city yet.
With St. Louis shutting down practice because of positive Covid cases I'm curious to see if the NHL is able to return to play in early August per their current timeline or whether that gets pushed back. Besides St. Louis, the teams to be most concerned about are obviously Tampa Bay, Florida, Arizona, Vegas, Dallas and Nashville given the current uptick in cases. Carolina and Minnesota are probably in the next tier.
At the end of the day though it's really on the players and staff themselves to be taking proper precautions. Even in cities where there are a high number of cases you can still self isolate, get groceries delivered, wash hands and limit your driving to mainly to and from the rink. Guys with families can be limiting their kids exposure as well. Even with all that though it could just take one player making poor decisions to get multiple people sick.
Again, very curious to see what the NHL's safety protocols are because there are going to be more positive tests.