LAS VEGAS — Kraken forwards Joonas Donskoi and Jared McCann and defenseman Jamie Oleksiak cleared COVID-19 protocol on Tuesday and have arrived in Las Vegas ahead of the season opener against the Golden Knights.
Multiple sources confirmed the players are at T-Mobile Arena and expected to play, leaving only forward Calle Jarnkrok still in COVID-19 protocol and unavailable. To clear room for the three, forwards Alexander True, Kole Lind and defenseman Dennis Cholowski were removed from the roster.
The arrivals of the three players, plus forward Marcus Johnsson, who exited protocol Monday and flew here with the team, capped a tumultuous 24 hours for the Kraken, which kept its lineup in-flux throughout the day hoping for good news.
“Our lineup is still a work-in-progress and we’re going to continue that as we go through the next couple of hours,’’ Kraken coach Dave Hakstol had said after the team’s late-morning skate at T-Mobile Arena.
But the players did indeed clear protocol in the hours that followed and made it on a flight early enough to join the team pregame.
Hakstol and others had done their best to downplay the potential loss of a significant part of the roster.
“Worrying about it isn’t going to do much for now,’’ team captain Mark Giordano said. “We’ve got to get our minds right, treat it like a regular gameday. You go through your video, your pregame skate and get ready to play tonight. And everything else is out of our control.’’
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