On Tuesday, as reported by ESPN, the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Hockey League Players Association (NHLPA) agreed to not send their players to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics next February.
The NHL had until January 10, 2022 to opt out of the Beijing Games without financial penalty.
In their latest collective bargaining agreement the NHL and NHLPA agreed on participating in the Beijing Games “unless the current NHL regular season was materially impacted by COVID-19 postponements.”
So far the NHL has postponed 50 games due to COVID-19 and has paused the regular season through Christmas Day, which meets the terms agreed upon in the agreement.
The NHL could use the three-week Olympic break to reschedule games missed due to the pandemic. The NHL All-Star Games is still scheduled for February 5, 2022, one day after the beginning of the Beijing Games.
Olympic rosters will now be filled by a combination of amateur players and professional players from leagues outside of the NHL.
Two-time Olympic gold medal winner and Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby said, “I’ve been fortunate to be a part of two Olympics. I definitely feel for the guys who have missed numerous opportunities. It’s not something where it’s the next year or you push it a couple of months.”
“These are experiences of a lifetime and you don’t get very many as an athlete.”
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