NHL, NHLPA To Allow Players To Compete In 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

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The NHL, National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA), and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) have reached a joint agreement confirming NHL player participation in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games. This will be the sixth Winter Olympic men’s hockey tournament that includes NHL players, beginning with the 1998 Nagano Games, though NHL players did not participate in the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang.

“I know that I can speak for hockey fans around the world when I say that we absolutely welcome the decision to bring back best-on-best ice hockey to the Olympics,” says IIHF President René Fasel. “We had many constructive discussions, and a lot of hard work was put into making this happen within the time we set out for ourselves, and I want to thank all parties involved for their support and commitment.”

The agreement allows for the potential Olympic debuts for some of the world’s top NHL players such as Connor McDavid (Canada), David Pastrnak (Czech Republic), Sebastian Aho (Finland), Nikita Kucherov (ROC), Victor Hedman (Sweden), Leon Draisaitl (Germany), and Auston Matthews (USA), among others.

“We understand how passionately NHL Players feel about representing and competing for their countries,” says Bill Daly, deputy commissioner for the NHL. “We are very pleased that we were able to conclude arrangements that will allow them to resume best on best competition on the Olympic stage.”

The tournament will include 12 countries seeded into three groups. Joining the top eight nations are Canada, ROC, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic, USA, Germany, and Switzerland. China, as the tournament host, will participate as well as the recently qualified teams from Slovakia, Latvia and Denmark, who earned the final seeds in the Final Men’s Olympic Qualification tournaments.

“Representing their country in the Olympics is important to the players, even in these uncertain times,” says Don Zavelo, NHLPA General Counsel. “The players look forward to pulling on their nation’s hockey sweater at the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing as they compete for the gold medal.”

The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing will take place from Feb. 4-20.

Steven Boero
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