Oilers place center Ryan McLeod in COVID protocol

Over the past two days, the league has seen two dozen players enter the COVID protocol. Ryan McLeod is the latest, as the Edmonton Oilers have announced the young center will not be available for Tuesday night’s game.

Once again, this is a case of a team that played the Carolina Hurricanes over the weekend announcing a protocol addition, just like the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames. The latter of those teams is in a full shutdown after nine players were ruled out, while the Hurricanes won’t play Tuesday night after six members are now in the protocol. All three Western Canadian teams also played the Boston Bruins, who added Craig Smith and Brad Marchand to the protocol Tuesday.

For now, it appears as though McLeod is the only Oilers player who will be held out, but with Zach Hyman also out Tuesday, Edmonton won’t have their best lineup in against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 22-year-old McLeod has played in 18 games so far this season, scoring three goals and averaging a little less than 11 minutes a night. That ice time has been up recently, but now faces a potential quarantine of at least 10 days. The team did not confirm whether or not McLeod has tested positive, though it looks that way.

If he experiences any symptoms, he’ll miss a minimum of 10 days, which would mean all six games scheduled before the Christmas break. At this point, though, schedules are incredibly uncertain as a new wave of infections sweeps through the league.