Will Kevin Fiala’s injury impact future NHL player participation at the Olympics?

Whenever the NHL players sends its players to the Olympics, the hope is always that the tournament can be completed without a major injury. For one, because major injuries are never good no matter the context, but also because injuries sustained to NHL players in the Olympics could only serve to disincentivize the NHL from sending their players to future Olympics.

Of course, injuries are always a risk whenever NHLers attend the Olympics. At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, John Tavares suffered a season-ending knee injury, while stars like Aleksander Barkov and Henrik Zetterberg had their tournaments cut short by injury. In these Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, we didn’t have to wait long to see our first serious injury. Switzerland‘s Kevin Fiala, who is the Los Angeles Kings‘ second-leading scorer this season, suffered a lower-body injury after getting tangled up with Canada‘s Tom Wilson in a preliminary-round game. The injury will require surgery, ending Fiala’s season.

On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed is Fiala’s injury will be seen as a reason for the NHL to pull out of future Olympics.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’m sure Kevin Fiala is sitting there saying “Don’t let me and my injury be the reason we don’t go.” I think all the players just know this is a risk.

Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think so, too. That could’ve happened anywhere. It could’ve happened in practice. It was an innocent play. It’s not like it was a vicious play or something that stood out. He and Tom Wilson just got tied up, and it was a weird way that he fell. I do think the NHL understands the risk going into this. There’s insurance, they have everything in place. But that being said, it would be hard to find any player that is playing at an elite level to say “No, we don’t want to go back.” You can see how much fun these guys are having and how much pride they take in it. Hopefully it’s here for good, but again that’s the risk we bear sending our stars over.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Friday’s episode here…