J.T. Miller doesn't believe the Vancouver Canucks should be taking the ice any time soon following their COVID-19 outbreak.

"I don't feel ready at all," Miller said Wednesday, per The Athletic's Thomas Drance.

The Canucks haven't played since March 26 after as many as 21 players and four staff members tested positive for the virus. Vancouver is slated to return Friday versus the Edmonton Oilers.

"I hope people don't take this the wrong way, I'm a super competitive guy ... but this isn't about hockey for our team," Miller said. "This is about the health and safety of our players, their family, and their children."

He continued: "To be brutally honest, we're going to need more time than this to come back and play hockey. Even the guys that didn't get it aren't ready."

Miller admitted his conditioning has declined despite never testing positive.

"Even for me, sitting around and not doing much, my lungs are screaming," he said.

Seven Canucks players remain on the league's COVID-19 list, including Jalen Chatfield, Alex Edler, Jayce Hawryluk, Nils Hoglander, Zack MacEwen, Nate Schmidt, and Jake Virtanen, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

Vancouver currently has a 16-18-3 record. As of now, the Canucks are set to play the entirety of their 56-game schedule.

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Colorado Avalanche netminder Philipp Grubauer has tested positive for COVID-19, reports Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.

Colorado canceled its morning skate Wednesday as a result.

Grubauer, 29, has been enjoying a career year, going 25-8-1 with a .920 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average.

Colorado added veteran goaltender Devan Dubnyk ahead of the trade deadline. Dubnyk and Jonas Johansson, whom the Avalanche acquired in March from the Buffalo Sabres, will likely share the crease until Grubauer returns.

Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram is also on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list, notes The Athletic's Peter Baugh.

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The Washington Capitals rewarded winger Conor Sheary with a two-year extension carrying an annual cap hit of $1.5 million, the team announced Wednesday.

The 28-year-old has recorded 11 goals and eight assists in 40 games this season while averaging 13:09 per contest. He's posted solid underlying numbers, too.

The Caps signed Sheary to a one-year deal with a $735,000 cap hit while he was a free agent this past offseason.

The 5-foot-8, 179-pound forward was originally signed by the Pittsburgh Penguins as an undrafted free agent in 2014 following a standout NCAA career at UMass. Sheary won two Stanley Cups with the Pens in 2016 and 2017.

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Jack Eichel's season is officially over.

The Buffalo Sabres superstar won't return to the ice this season due to a herniated disc in his neck, the club announced Wednesday. The team expects him to be ready to play at the start of the 2021-22 campaign.

Eichel hasn't suited up for a game since March 7. The normally dominant Sabres captain struggled to score in 2021, collecting two goals and 16 assists in 21 contests. He posted a shooting percentage of only 3.3 after tallying at a 15.9% rate last season. The 24-year-old racked up a career-high 36 goals to go along with 42 assists over 68 games in 2019-20.

His underlying numbers also indicated bad luck was a factor in 2021. The dynamic center produced a goals for percentage of 38.46 at five-on-five, but his expected goals for percentage was a favorable 56.42 in those situations, according to Natural Stat Trick.

Eichel has played his entire six-year career with Buffalo. The Sabres drafted him second overall in 2015 and named him captain at the start of the 2018-19 campaign.

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Dallas Stars goaltender Ben Bishop and forward Alexander Radulov will both miss the remainder of the season due to injury, the team announced.

Bishop will continue rehabilitation on his surgically repaired knee while Radulov requires surgery to repair a core muscle injury.

Both players are expected to be ready for the 2021-22 season.

More to come.

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Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh didn't mince words regarding his team's effort following a 7-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.

"Tonight was an absolute embarrassment," the veteran blue-liner said, according to The Athletic's Joe Smith.

The Preds controlled 62% of both the high-danger scoring chances and the expected goals at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

"This was one of the worst performances I've seen in a Lightning uniform from our group," said McDonagh, who joined Tampa prior to the 2018 trade deadline.

He added it was "not even close" to halfway effort.

The Lightning will get a chance to rebound on Thursday against the Florida Panthers.

Meanwhile, the Predators are arguably the hottest team in the NHL, as they've compiled an 11-2-0 record in their last 13 games. They've been banged up for a good portion of this stretch, too. Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, Eeli Tolvanen, and Dante Fabbro were among those missing from Tuesday's lineup.

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Nashville Predators defenseman Mattias Ekholm and sniper Filip Forsberg will each become unrestricted free agents after next season, but general manager Dave Poile is keen on locking up the pair of blue-chip talents.

Ekholm - who was the subject of trade rumors leading up to Monday's deadline - has played all 10 of his NHL seasons with the Predators, and Poile said the door will be open for the blue-liner to ink an extension.

"His name got thrown out there a lot in trade baits and different things," Poile said Monday, according to The Athletic's Adam Vingan. "My next conversation with Mattias will be after this year about how he thinks he fits into the future of this hockey club and whether he would like to be here longer, not whether we want to trade him."

Ekholm, 30, has contributed five goals and 17 points while logging 22:44 of average ice over 36 games this season.

Poile also discussed the future of Forsberg - one of the Predators' perennial goalscorers - and the GM understands how critical it is to keep the talented Swede around.

"We should sit down and see what he thinks about his future here and see if there's an opportunity to extend him," Poile said Tuesday, according to NHL.com.

Forsberg has hit the 25-goal mark five times for the Predators and has amassed 376 points through 474 games with the club. He's been out of the lineup since March 25 with an upper-body injury.

"He'd be a very tough player to replace," Poile said. "I think he's just coming into his prime. These are his best years, and I still see the day when Filip is not just going to just score 30 goals, but he's going to score 40 goals."

The Predators have won 10 of their last 12 outings to catapult back into a playoff position after a sluggish start to the campaign.

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Anaheim Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf stayed with his rebuilding club through the deadline despite being a pending unrestricted free agent. However, there were no shortage of suitors for the veteran center.

One of them, apparently, was the Vegas Golden Knights.

"I don't want to dig too much into the details of everything," Getzlaf said Tuesday, according to The Athletic's Eric Stephens. "(General manager Bob Murray) was approached by a few different teams. Vegas, being one of them, I think, at some point. Were they part of the mix? I'm sure. They're a contender in our division."

Getzlaf's contract contains a full no-movement clause, per CapFriendly, so he would've controlled his own destiny in any deal.

The 35-year-old was only willing to facilitate a move out of Anaheim if the Ducks could get something significant in return, Murray said Monday, according to The Associated Press' Greg Beacham.

"It wasn't there," Murray said. "He is all about the organization, whatever is best for us."

The Golden Knights are a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, but if they have a weakness, it's down the middle of the ice. Chandler Stephenson and William Karlsson are the club's top two pivots, while Cody Glass, Tomas Nosek, and Nicolas Roy round out the team's bottom-six center options.

Getzlaf is one of the best centers of his generation, ranking sixth in points at his position since entering the league in 2005-06. He's having the worst season of his career, though, as he's registered just three goals and 12 assists in 37 contests. The Ducks rank dead last in the league in goals.

It's possible Getzlaf's contract would've posed an issue in a potential trade. Vegas has just $153,816 in current space, and Getzlaf is in the final year of an eight-year contract carrying an annual cap hit of $8.25 million.

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