NHL makes it ‘official’ that its players won’t be playing in the 2022 Olympics
On Monday, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported that the NHL and NHLPA had decided to not have NHL players participate in the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, amid concerns related to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
On Wednesday morning, the NHL released a statement making this decision official.
NHL announces that there will not be an Olympic break, NHL Players will not be able to participate in 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Full release: https://t.co/GkHDkNgZSo pic.twitter.com/ysBmWctzjw
The NHL’s announcement came on the first day of the league’s mandated pausing of all activities for every NHL team that’s currently scheduled to run from Dec. 22-25. The next games on the NHL’s schedule are slated for Dec. 27, although it’s uncertain at this point if these games will be played on schedule.
As far as the 2022 Olympics go, much remains up in the air.
If NHL players aren’t going, then who will be playing? Daily Faceoff’s Chris Peters explored this subject in depth last week.
Given the rapid increases in positive tests for the Omicron variant of COVID-19, it’s not certain that the 2022 Olympics will take place at all, themselves. The Olympics are currently scheduled to run from Feb. 4-Feb. 20 in Beijing.
The decision to not send NHL players to the Olympics has also fueled speculation that the league may begin exploring the possibility of staging another World Cup of Hockey. With NHL players not going to the 2022 Olympics after also not participating in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, there hasn’t been a true ‘best-on-best’ international tournament since the 2016 World Cup.
When a World Cup could materialize by — as with the case with all sporting events at the moment — remains uncertain and subject to change as the world is closing in on entering its third year of a global pandemic.