When the Philadelphia Flyers take the ice at the Wells Fargo Center this season, one thing will be certain. The Flyers will be 100% vaccinated.
“We’ll be fully vaccinated for the start of the season, for sure,” GM Chuck Fletcher said on Tuesday. “I believe we are basically there right now.”
Fletcher added “we’ve had a great response from staff and players. We’re looking forward to having a hopefully much more normal season than last year. The response has been great from everybody.”
After dealing with a covid shutdown last season, the Flyers as a group are not taking any chances. Being one of the many teams in the NHL that will be 100% vaccinated.
This initiative has been a group effort. Not just from the Flyers. But, the NHL & NHLPA.
“It’s been a joint effort with the NHL, the NHLPA, the medical consultants, and the doctors,” Chuck Fletcher said about the vaccines. “We’ve had great resources provided to us by both the NHL and the NHLPA.”
Fletcher added “this goes back to last season once we got into the spring, April, May, and June in particular when the vaccines became readily available to hockey players and to our staff. The response at that time was great. The league and the union put out information, had medical experts available to speak with players that maybe had questions they wanted answered.”
However, this initiative did not stop there. This initiative carried into the Flyers front office & organization.
“I think the response from our organization, from our staff, certainly our players, has been great,” Chuck Fletcher said about the Flyers organization as a whole. “I can just tell you we’re going to be ready to go. It’s been a collaborative effort.”
Fans Will Be Allowed At Training Camp
After what has seemed like years, the Flyers will allow fans in Voorhees for training camp this year.
“I can’t wait to see the fans here on the 23rd,” Chuck Fletcher said on Tuesday about the return of fans.
Fletcher added “we’re working through those health and safety protocols right now. My expectation is we’ll probably ask for fans to wear a mask. Otherwise, people will be allowed into watch practices like they normally did.”
Even though fans will have to wear masks, Fletcher doesn’t believe it will stop the fans from showing up. Especially the energy they will bring.
“Even just having some energy in our building, our practice rink. It’s huge,” Chuck Fletcher said about the impact of the fans. “We’re only in this game because of the fans.”
Photo Credit : Zack Hill – Flyers PR Guru
