OLYMPIC HOCKEY
The matter is closed. No NHL players in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
For the first time since 1994, National Hockey League players will not attend the Winter Olympics.
The league released a statement Monday saying it “considers the matter officially closed” and that it won’t participate in the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Negotiations between the league, the NHL Players’ Association and the International Olympic Committee have stalled in recent months.
In the statement, the NHL said it was open to hearing from the parties involved, but that “no meaningful dialogue has materialized.”
“Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL’s participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018,” the league said. “And the NHLPA has now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the clubs.”
The league said it will now proceed with finalizing the schedule for next season.
The NHL Players’ Association didn’t immediately respond to the league’s announcement.
The NHL had been at every Winter Olympics since 1998 and players have expressed their desire to continue participating.
It was just over a year ago at the Stanley Cup final in Pittsburgh that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman began pouring cold water on the idea of NHLers participating in 2018. In particular, Bettman was miffed that the International Olympic Committee was resisting payment on out-of-pocket costs for NHL players to attend — a subsidy that had been covered over the previous five Games. Bettman said the cost was “many, many, many millions of dollars” and doubted owners would pay for the “privilege of disrupting our season.”
Little had changed by early winter. Bettman continued to fume about money as well as the IOC’s unwillingness to let the NHL be associated with the Olympics in any fashion. The league couldn’t air highlights or promote their presence at the Games. “It doesn’t give you the warm and fuzzies,” Bettman said at the PrimeTime Sports Management Conference.
The NHL then proposed an idea to the players’ association that would extend the current collective bargaining agreement as a part of package for players to attend in 2018. The union turned down the deal.
By early December, at the board of governors meetings in Florida, Bettman hinted at “fatigue” from the owners at going to the Games again. There were concerns, he said, about shutting down the season, what with the impact of a compressed schedule on players.
Connor McDavid said “100 per cent” that NHL players should go. The Edmonton Oilers captain, who wasn’t even born the last time NHL players didn’t attend in 1994, said he couldn’t envision the Olympics without the world’s top players.
“I just feel like we’re misrepresenting our sport on a pretty huge scale and a pretty huge level,” added Jonathan Toews, a longtime ace for Team Canada. “I think the players do want to go … I think the NHL should be in the Olympics.”