Alex Stalock reveals heart condition kept him out of Wild lineup to start season

On Monday, the Edmonton Oilers claimed goaltender Alex Stalock off waivers from the Minnesota Wild. The 33-year-old has missed the entirety of Minnesota's training camp, as well as the first six weeks of the season with what the organization called an upper-body injury. The extent of Stalock's injury wasn't revealed until Monday afternoon, when he opened up to Michael Russo of The Athletic.

Stalock tested positive for COVID-19 in November, but didn't believe he actually had the virus as he had no symptoms. He asked for clearance to train at the Wild's practice facility, but per NHL protocols he needed to have a cardiac screening to ensure he was symptom free. While undergoing an EKG, doctors detected something that didn't look right, and immediately sent Stalock for an MRI.

It was determined that Stalock had myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart muscle.

"When they got a better picture, sure enough, they said, 'You have myocarditis — a swelling or edema in your heart,' and you can't do anything for the next six weeks." Stalock said. "It was just crazy. It was right at the time where they were finding this in a lot of athletes after having COVID, especially in college football."

"Those first couple weeks were scary. You go on the internet and read stuff and you're like, 'Holy sh*t.' I was completely asymptomatic, but they think because I had no symptoms and had it in my system that because it was right at the time where we were ramping things up with skating and working out and ramping up for the season that my heart was working and working and working and started to get stressed and swell because of the virus in my system. I mean, that's pretty scary. We have two kids and just had a newborn baby and then you find out this news, so there was a lot going on there for a couple weeks.

"It was mentally draining and very frustrating. Every doctor you talk to, they're like, 'This is so new, we don't know what can happen.' And you're like, 'Well, that doesn't help.'"

He relaxed over the holiday season, listening to his doctors' orders, and in January travelled to Boston to see a specialist, who gave him the news that he could return to working out, and prepare to return to NHL action.

"Now that it's cleared up and knowing that this was something that potentially should go away with rest and letting your heart come back and not stressing it, that was good news last month and helped mentally," Stalock said. "But it is crazy that, 'Holy cow, this is how your career ends in Minnesota.' You just wish it would have ended differently, but it's just business. I'm just glad I'm healthy again and have an opportunity to go play in Edmonton."

Stalock admits he was a bit shocked to be placed on waivers, but he's excited to join the Oilers, and will fly to Edmonton on Tuesday.

"I want to get up there as soon as I can so I can get going," Stalock said. "The fact that they claimed you understanding that you still have to go through a 14-day (government-mandated) quarantine adds a little extra that they wanted ya. I got real close to (Oilers forward) Tyler Ennis here in Minnesota and he tells me I'll love it there. I can't wait to see (Connor) McDavid up close. Enzo's like, 'Wait 'til you watch this guy practice every day. He practices the way he plays,' which is absurd. So it'll be fun."

Source: Michael Russo/The Athletic

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