NHL won't participate in 2018 Olympics
The "Olympic break" is about to take on a whole new meaning.
The NHL will not participate in the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, the league announced Monday, reiterating that the "overwhelming majority" of its clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting next season's schedule to accommodate participation.
"We were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue ... as to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject. A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized," the NHL said in a statement.
"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.
"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. As a result, and in an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 regular season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games. We now consider the matter officially closed."
TSN's Darren Dreger provided some detail about how the decision came down and why it was announced Monday.
NHL advised Don Fehr of its decision first thing this morning. League has also spoken to IIHF, but has yet to connect with IOC.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) April 3, 2017
League source says they believed a decision on the Olympics needed to be made before start of the NHL playoffs.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) April 3, 2017
The Olympic saga dragged on through months of negotiations between the NHL, the NHLPA, the IOC, and the IIHF, but the overwhelming sense throughout was that the league and its players union were reluctant to make concessions to ensure participation in these Games.
Many players voiced their desire to go to South Korea, and Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin was most vocal about his intent to go with or without the league's blessing, a stance his club's owner, Ted Leonsis, supported.