NEWSLETTER
It has been a slow crawl figuring out whether or not the NHL would be its sending players, coaches, and other personnel to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China this upcoming February.
After missing out on the 2018 Winter Olympics, slow but steady progress has been made regarding the NHL’s participation. But, we are still without a firm confirmation one way or the other. Fortunately, we will learn soon.
According to ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, the NHL will have to have their final decision on the 2022 Winter Olympics by the end of this month.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirms that a final 2022 Winter Olympic participation decision will arrive by the end of this month. At least 2 teams have mentioned this deadline to season-ticket holders, regarding a switch to "revised" 21-22 schedule. Story to come on @espn.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) August 10, 2021
The NHL released their 2021-22 season schedule not too long ago, with two different versions, one with an Olympic break and one without.
The publicly released schedule included the Olympic break, scheduled from February 7th-22nd, and would be set to happen following the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas on February 4th and 5th. That was released with the caveat that no final agreement on participation had yet been made.
There had been steady optimism that the NHL would be participating in the upcoming Olympics if there were an agreement on player insurance, travel accommodations, etc. between the league and the IOC. But as time goes by and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause problems around the world, the likelihood of the NHL sending players internationally is starting to feel less likely.
Devin Heroux reported on some of the reported precautions that are to be expected at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics with regards to COVID-19:
From the NY Times.
On what the Beijing Winter Olympics will be like regarding restrictions.
I had heard anecdotally it would be much more strict. This is quite something. We’re 178 days away. pic.twitter.com/MLLSloQ8D6
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) August 10, 2021
It doesn’t sound like an environment that I would want to participate in if I didn’t have to. Plus with the added possibility of getting injured or sick with COVID during the NHL season, players may be less likely to want to head internationally to play in the Olympics. The ripple effect of a schedule change across the league from the proposed schedule with the Olympic break to the “plan B” schedule without it could cause some teams to have to reschedule events outside of the NHL and other promotional events.
With less than three weeks to the end of the month, we’ll finally know soon if the excitement of watching the best Men’s players in the world compete for their countries on the grandest international stage in hockey will return in February, or if we’ll see NHL has-beens and never-weres competing again.
