The NHL has informed players it will not pay for COVID-19 insurance at the Olympics
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have come to an end, so the focus has now shifted to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
The NHL released the 2021-22 schedule earlier this week with a two-week-long break for the Olympics in February. That said, it still isn’t known whether NHL players will be heading to Beijing to participate.
The NHL and the Players’ Association agreed to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement last summer before playing the 2020 playoffs in bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton. One of the things the two sides agreed to was that players would be allowed to play in the 2022 and 2026 Olympic games, an important concession for the players after they didn’t play in Pyeongchang in 2018.
Despite the agreement, there are still some logistical hurdles for the league to clear before players can be released to play in Beijing. A key issue is who pays insurance for the players, something complicated further by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the NHL has informed the PA that the league won’t be paying for COVID insurance and that players will not be paid for games they miss because of COVID if contracted at the Olympics…
1. PA has alerted players that NHL will not pay for COVID insurance at Olympics or Olympics qualifiers. League position is that players will not be paid for games they miss because of COVID if contracted at Olympic events.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) August 12, 2021
2. PA has presented IIHF with cost to of insurance but has been told international federations will not pay. So at this point, PA “strongly advises” players not to participate in Olympic qualifying events. Talks are ongoing.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) August 12, 2021
As Brooks reports, the league has “strongly advised” players not to participate in Olympic qualifying events later this month.
Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and host China are the nine teams that have already qualified, while 12 other teams, including Slovakia and Denmark, will compete for the final three spots.