Canucks without Travis Hamonic to begin road trip; Benning sheds light on situation

The Vancouver Canucks have loaned defenceman Travis Hamonic to the Abbotsford Canucks, the team announced Monday morning.

Hamonic recently got his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and isn’t considered a “fully vaccinated player” under the NHL’s COVID-19 protocols until 14 days after his second dose.

General manager Jim Benning shed some light on the Hamonic situation, and revealed why he said that he expected Hamonic to be at training camp and in the opening night lineup fully vaccinated when he spoke to media days before camp got underway.

“So, as I came in to talk to you guys, I talked to Travis before and he was on his way to get vaccinated,” said Benning. “So he was just on his way to go get the vaccination. He went over to the pharmacy, and had some second thoughts I guess. And then he went through some other struggles — issues that he was dealing with, so he took a leave of absence from the team to deal with those issues. And then he got the one vaccine and so now he’s got both vaccines — he got the second one a couple of days ago. So it’ll be a couple of weeks yet and then he’s classified where he can go across the border.”

Last night, head coach Travis Green said that Hamonic won’t be with the club for the start of the road trip, but didn’t specify at which date Hamonic would be able to join the team on the road.

The Canucks embark on a five-game road trip beginning Wednesday in Pittsburgh after a disappointing three-game homestand in which they won just one game.