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The Omicron variant is changing how teams and the National Hockey League manage COVID-19.

On Friday, Calgary Flames head physician Dr. Ian Auld said that the variant’s high rate of transmission is forcing the team and league to rethink their approach to reducing spread.

Calgary last played on Dec. 11, when they lost 4-2 to Boston. More than half of the 38 players who suited up that night at the Saddledome are now on the league’s COVID protocol list.

The Flames tested their players on Saturday afternoon in preparation for their cross-border flight to Chicago the following day, then played the game that night. The Flames do have rapid PCR tests that can produce results within 30 minutes (as opposed to the several hours it takes for normal PCR tests), but normally use them for players with symptoms. Positive COVID tests then came up after the game, late Saturday night.

The NHL’s current COVID protocols do not elaborate on possible in-game transmission, and the league did not respond to TSN’s comments earlier this week about the Flames’ outbreak. 

“To date, with previous variants, the risk of on-field, on-ice transmission has been negligible,” Dr. Auld said. “Omicron is creating a different landscape on that. I think the answers are not clear at this point, but 100 per cent, the league is looking and talking to Boston, talking to us, trying to determine whether on-ice transmission is going to be an issue with us moving forward. We don’t have a clear answer to that, but we are looking into it.”

As of Friday afternoon, the Flames have 19 roster players and 32 members of the organization in the league’s protocol. At least three Flames players have contracted the Omicron variant of COVID-19, a number Dr. Auld expects to grow as more lab results come in.

“My anticipation is if it’s three, there’s more if not all [confirmed cases being the variant],” he said.  “That information should be leaking in within the next 48 to 72 hours…we’ve had cases before and close contacts before, and I’ve never seen transmission on this level.”

The NHL has shut down the Flames, Colorado Avalanche, and Florida Panthers' schedules through at least Dec. 26, the end of the league’s holiday pause. By that point, Calgary would have had six games postponed.

Matthew Tkachuk, Blake Coleman, Michael Stone, and goalie Dan Vladar are the only Flames players who remain off the protocol.

The Flames cases have, for the most part, been asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic, but some family members have been affected. At least four cases have had moderate symptoms, like chills, fevers, or fatigue, and those symptoms have generally lasted at most, 48 hours.

“Overwhelmingly, we have seen mild disease,” Dr. Auld said.

The Flames organization and fans still have many questions, including how one of the league’s biggest outbreaks began. Calgary has done contact tracing and worked with the league to attempt to identify its source. 

“We can’t sit here and say, ‘Here’s the ground zero or patient zero,’” general manager Brad Treliving said, adding that the team had travelled this month. “But we haven’t exactly pinpointed where and how it got in.”

When the Flames do hit the Saddledome ice again, it could be in front of a reduced-capacity crowd.

While the Government of Alberta is not currently considering an attendance reduction, a spokesperson for the province’s ministry of health told TSN it is “willing to take further measures if and as warranted.”

“Going forward, we haven’t had any direction [from the government] on that,” Treliving said.

Treliving is now tasked with juggling the roster but said there hasn’t been further conversations with the league about cap relief.

"Nothing has been discussed in terms of any revisions or anything other than what's currently in place," he said.

The team held a Zoom call on Thursday evening.

“You never want your season to be interrupted, and they’re eager to get back,” Treliving said. “We try to look at this as a bump in the road. We’ll get through it and on the other side. No one likes being holed up, but all things considered, the group is doing well.”