NHL Players Not Allowed To Participate In 2022 Winter Olympics

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The NHL has announced that its players will no longer be allowed to participate in the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

This announcement comes just two days after the league announced the postponement of games through the holiday break after a spike in COVID-19 cases among many teams.

“The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL Players to represent their countries and participate in a ‘best on best’ tournament. Accordingly, we have waited as long as possible to make this decision while exploring every available option to enable our players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games,” says NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman .

“Unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the NHL’s regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events–50 games already have been postponed through Dec. 23–Olympic participation is no longer feasible,” he continues. “We certainly acknowledge and appreciate the efforts made by the International Olympic Committee, the International Ice Hockey Federation and the Beijing Organizing Committee to host NHL Players but current circumstances have made it impossible for us to proceed despite everyone’s best efforts. We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.”

Nashville Predators captain Roman Josi was set to play for Switzerland’s Olympic team. He was selected for his home country twice before and played in all four games for the Swiss in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Predators head coach John Hynes was slated to join the U.S. Olympic hockey team as an assistant coach

Steven Boero
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