Olympics: NHLers given 50-50 odds

If you believe Rene Fasel, the International Ice Hockey Federation president, there appears to be slight movement toward having NHL players participate at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Fasel said Tuesday he believes the odds are 50-50 that NHLers will attend. In May, Fasel said there was a 60 per cent chance NHLers would not attend. However, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said little progress has been made. “I’m not sure there’s any prospect of progress being made. So on the basis of that I would say I’m more negative today than I was two weeks ago,” Daly said. Fasel added he intends to “beg” for $10 million to cover travel and insurance expenses for NHL players to be at the Olympics. Without that, there is no way NHLers would play.