All Cam Russell can do is keep waiting.
The Halifax Mooseheads general manager is anxious to get his team's two Europeans and one American into the lineup but there is nothing he can do to rush the process. Forwards Senna Peeters (Belgium), Attilio Biasca (Switzerland) and Zack Jones (United States) are not allowed to enter Canada at the moment because of COVID-19 restrictions.
That leaves a huge hole in the Mooseheads' attack but Russell accepts and respects that the federal and provincial governments have to be careful about loosening those regulations.
"We're all waiting patiently and the league is doing the work with the governments," Russell said. "But we understand why the borders are closed and we know there are no guarantees so we just have to keep our fingers crossed."
Compared to professional athletes like the international players for HFX Wanderers FC who qualified for entry into Canada on working visas, major junior players aren't eligible for that clearance. Although QMJHL teams provide weekly allowances to their players, they are not considered employees.
"They're student athletes so that's how we're trying to get them in," Russell said. "But to get a student visa, you would've had to do it in March. Prior to COVID, we never had to get them student visas. We just had to have the proper documentation and there was never a problem crossing the border. And there are lots of kids with student visas that are getting turned away right now. You've got universities that are online so the government is saying they can take courses from home or anywhere."
Peeters and Jones are both skating on their own at home, while Biasca is practising and playing with his junior team from last year, Zug under-20. The Mooseheads open the season on Oct. 2 on the road against the Cape Breton Eagles.
"I know they're frustrated but if you look at Ontario and the Western league, they could be looking at not playing until December," Russell said. "So if they're not here for early October, it's not the end of the world. We'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope to get them here as soon as we can."
In the meantime, the Mooseheads will have to make it work with the players they have available to them. They're currently carrying just enough forwards to ice a team and two extra defencemen. Fortunately, the league just got approval to allow teams to add players from midget or Junior A in situations when teams are short because of injuries or suspensions.
"We're thin right now," Russell said. "We've kept 12 forwards so when those three guys get here we'll have an abundance of players at that position, which isn't the end of the world in a year like this one. But right now we only have 12 forwards and seven healthy defencemen so we don't have a lot of extra guys hanging around.
"We weren't allowed affiliates or call-ups at first so that would've been tough if it stayed that way. But they just allowed them five or six days ago so that will help everyone work through this."
The Mooseheads close out the pre-season with a game against the Charlottetown Islanders in Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon.
