Bill Foley, Vegas Golden Knights chairman/CEO, stands in the arena during an arena-naming news conference in Henderson Tuesday, March 30, 2021, The Silver Knights, the AHL affiliate of the Golden Knights, announced the under-construction arena in Henderson will be called the Dollar Loan Center.
Tuesday, March 30, 2021 | 4:42 p.m.
Many Golden Knights players have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and plan to receive their second dose in the coming weeks, team owner Bill Foley said.
“I think it’s great. We want our guys to get vaccinated,” Foley said.
Foley said representatives from University Medical Center administered the shots after a game last week. He didn’t specify which players received the vaccine, but said “a few” players declined.
The organization is trying to time the second dose of vaccine so that any side effects occur on days without games.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon told the Sun earlier Tuesday that the team would not encourage a player one way or another on getting the vaccine. When asked if he would want players to be vaccinated before playoffs begin in May, he said it was not the role of an employer to tell employees what they can or cannot do in that regard.
“It’s an individual decision,” McCrimmon said. “It will be interesting around the NHL how players view it, how they decide what will be best for them, for their health, their family. It will be completely independent of the team.”
The organization, like many in all of sports, has been affected with players testing positive. Tomas Nosek missed time with the virus, Alex Pietrangelo was included on the league’s COVID list, and William Karlsson and Marc-André Fleury each had false positive tests.
And in late January, the entire Vegas coaching staff had to isolate as a precaution after one tested positive, leaving McCrimmon and coaches from the minor-league Henderson Silver Knights in the NHL coaching box.
Nevada has administered more than 1.2 million vaccines, according to data from Southern Nevada Health Response, covering about a quarter of the population. About 14% of the population is considered fully vaccinated.
Beginning Monday, April 5, all those age 16 or older are eligible for the vaccine beginning Monday.
“I think it’s great for the state to start rolling it out and getting more people vaccinated,” defenseman Shea Theodore said.
