News: Hamonic suspended without pay

[tarheelhockey]

Well shit, my bad then...I assumed it was fact since so many people were reporting/saying it, at least speculating it.

I see the counterpoint though. If he was fully vaccinated and was doing this solely to protect his daughter why are both sides so tight lipped and so cryptic about the whole thing? Why not just come out and say the truth (assuming it is that) or simply opt out of the season.

I kinda feel like he owes the fans and organization that.

Yeah, the lack of transparency is the weirdest thing about it. Perhaps there's something which really is too private to put into the public sphere. Nothing we've talked about so far would seem to rise to that level.

 

[Chips]

I feel like it's kinda obvious what's going on here:

1. Hamonic has an immunocompromised daughter that is too young to get the COVID-19 vaccine
2. His daughter was hospitalized at 8 months old in 2019 due to a respiratory illness, which is why he opted out of the bubble in 2020
3. Vancouver had a nasty outbreak of COVID-19 last season, where 21 of 25 players caught COVID including Hamonic
4. Vaccines aren't 100% effective, so there is still the risk of Hamonic catching COVID and giving it to his daughter

I feel like it's fairly obvious: he's terrified of his daughter getting COVID-19 and doesn't think the risk of him playing is worth it. I imagine the outbreak last season was a real wake up call for him, where he basically decided playing during the pandemic isn't worth the risk even with vaccines.

This, + he quite possibly doesn’t care that much about losing the money and or feels bad that his absence hurts the team, and is fine with them removing his cap, rather than them genuinely “punishing” him

 

[crowi]

i'm not here to speculate on what's going on in hamonic's life, but there is some organizational precedent to this.

in the spring of 2008, luongo had an extremely major family situation and the vancouver media made it very public and reported on it in a very invasive tabloidy way, speculating on it affecting his play, reporting about his whereabouts on days off, etc.

the team probably could have handled it better, in terms of protecting him. dave nonis was in the offseason and was replaced by mike gillis, who operated with a total cone of silence when it came to players' personal lives (see: rypien, kassian).

luongo was never the same, either in his on ice play (which was still very very good, but the peak 2004 to 2007 luongo was gone), and his relationship to the city was also never the same.

Man. Mike Gillis was such a good GM. Why was he fired again?

 

[SoupNazi]

Closed for cleanup, at least.