Traverse City — Tyler Bertuzzi said he made a personal choice not to get the COVID-19 vaccinate.
Bertuzzi had a brief Zoom interview with media after Thursday’s training camp practice.
“It went fine, it was good,” Bertuzzi said of his chat with general manager Steve Yzerman about his decision not to get vaccinated. ”It’s a life choice, a personal choice. Personal choice.”
Bertuzzi said he’s talked with teammates about his decision.
“Everything is good, same as normal,” Bertuzzi said.
Bertuzzi didn’t think twice about his decision to not get vaccinated.
“It was pretty set in stone,” Bertuzzi said.
Bertuzzi could miss as many as nine games when the Wings play in Canada, where he won’t be allowed to enter the country. He is also forfeiting his salary for those games.
Bertuzzi is coming off back surgery, which ended his season one month into the schedule.
“I was real happy with my progress my recovery and I stayed in Detroit all summer and skated and I feel real good,” Bertuzzi said. “Usually training cap is a grind but I’m excited to be back and skating with the guys and getting ready to play a season and try to play as many games as I can.”
Dylan Larkin, the Wings’ captain and a close of friend of Bertuzzi, backed Bertuzzi’s decision.
“It’s his choice,” Larkin said. “Tyler has looked into it and weighed all his options. At the end of the day it was his choice to not get it.
“Tyler is very popular in our (locker) room, a very big part of our locker room, and we’re going to miss him on the ice and locker room when he isn’t able to play. But he has our support.”
Larkin said the Wings would deal with not having Bertuzzi available much like not having a player out due to injury.
“We’re going to miss him when he’s not there,” Larkin said. “Like an injury or anything you have to find ways (as a team). You can’t think about it too much, you have to move on and be ready to play.
“We deal with it a lot in our business and we’ll treat it the same way.”
Larkin has spoken to Bertuzzi about the issue.
“Being a close friend with him, we’ve had conversations and he’s explained it to me,” Larkin said. “We’ve talked a lot about it. Tyler has thought a lot about it. I know there’s a lot of support in making his own decision, but there is also a part that everyone knows we’re going to miss him when he can’t play.”
Larkin said he was vaccinated.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan