Vankeeken may miss next game after breaking COVID protocols

A situation is evolving with the Wings and defenseman Chris Vankeekan after he was caught breaking COVID protocols at practice last night.

The incident occurred after the Wings practice when Vankeekan, casting covid protocols aside, decided to wear his teammate Hartmann’s mask.

“It was just so unexpected. We’ve had the protocols drilled into us all season, so it was surprising to see him just throw them out the window like that,” said Hartmann. “I’m not sure how hard the league is going to come down on him.”

Vankeekan was unavailable to media, but the team said they are working closely with the CAHL to get him some rapid tests and are hoping the young defenseman can produce two negative results before Friday.

“Chris is a big part of our defense and we need him out there,” said GM Godbout. “But at the same time, we can’t have players just ignoring protocols like that.”

Mitch Ethier and Mark Molnar also witnessed the incident and were just as shocked as everyone else.

“I was watching him get out of the shower as I always do, and then I saw him grab Hartmann’s mask and I couldn’t believe it,” said Ethier. “Hopefully we can all learn a lesson from this.”

Stay tuned for updates around Maskgate.