Canucks GM Benning Blows Up the Hamonic Vaccination Timeline

For the past two weeks we’ve been throwing out potential timetables for defenceman Travis Hamonic’s ability to travel following a second Covid vaccination shot, many of those scenarios hopeful based on what club personnel had told us back on November 1st when Hamonic returned to the Vancouver Canucks.

That included Hamonic saying “I’m vaccinated.” We learned minutes later via head coach Travis Green the inaccuracy of that claim when the coach said “he’ll be double-vaxxed soon and we’ll be following all of the protocols.”

It turns out Green was just being hopeful as well. At least in the short term.

Thursday morning, addressing the media, Vancouver Canucks General Manager Jim Benning blew-up any optimistic timetables that might have involved participation for Hamonic on this next road trip to the US. After second thoughts, Hamonic just received his second shot, apparently in the “last couple days”.

Why he would get one, and then wait on a second, the key to being able to travel and play NHL hockey on the road, seems illogical, but then again, the entire situation has been a mystery wrapped in contradictions.

“So, as I came in to talk to you guys, I talked to Travis (Hamonic), before I walked in to talk to you guys, and he was on his way to get vaccinated,” Benning said. “He was just on his way to get the vaccination. He went over to the pharmacy, and he had, you know, some second thoughts I guess. Then he went through some other struggles, some issues he was dealing with, he took a leave of absence from the team to deal with those issues, and then he got the one vaccine. So now he’s got both vaccines, he got the second one a couple days ago, so it’ll be a couple weeks yet and he’s classified, or he can go across the border.”

Yes, the timetable within that story seemed muddled, but we’ll go with it. It went from present tense, to past tense, back to present tense without transition. Was Hamonic on his way to get his shot today, or did he get it two days ago?

Regardless if he received his second shot today, or “a couple” days ago, Hamonic would only be eligible to join the next road trip in progress. If done by the book, one must wait 14 days after a second vaccine shot to be cleared to cross borders. The team leaves November 23rd. The Vancouver Canucks will arrive in Pennsylvania without this key right-handed defenceman when they prepare to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and then the Boston Bruins. That latter game falls on November 28th.

Regardless of whether he received the shot today or two days ago, Hamonic could join the team for the game in Montreal November 29th and the one against the Ottawa Senators on December 1st as he wouldn’t have to cross the border.

The next road game in the US after that isn’t until December 16th in San Jose against the Sharks. If he is indeed double-vaxxed, Hamonic will make that trip.

Did it take a 5-9-and-2 or a 5-10-and-2 record to push him across the vaccination finish line? Who knows.