Dallas Stars place Jamie Benn, Luke Glendening, Ryan Suter in COVID protocol

The Dallas Stars have placed Jamie Benn, Luke Glendening and Ryan Suter in the COVID protocol, raising their number of absent players to 11. The team has also placed an additional support staff member into the protocol, raising that number to three.

The new trio joins Radek Faksa, Jani Hakanpaa, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, Joel Kiviranta, Esa Lindell, Michael Raffl, and Jason Robertson in the protocol, explaining why the Dallas games against Colorado were both postponed already. The Stars aren’t scheduled to play until Sunday, at which point they could potentially have some of these players eligible again.

With the NHL (slightly) relaxing the isolation rules, teams like the Stars could get players back after just five days, should they be able to provide a negative test. While that’s obviously not a guarantee, in this case, it at least opens up the window a bit for a quick return after ending up in the protocol. For the Stars, who are now missing four of their regular defensemen, it would certainly be a welcome change.