NHLers appear unlikely to compete at Olympics
IIHF wants the pros in Pyeongchang but can’t afford players’ travel costs
There are still eight months to go before the NHL and NHLPA must decide whether or not to participate in the next Winter Olympics.
But according to the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, the possibility of sending NHL players to South Korea for the 2018 Olympics “doesn’t look very good.”
Obviously, that could change between now and January 2017, the dropdead date, because the league needs ample time to prepare the 201718 schedule. And IIHF president Rene Fasel is holding out hope it will.
“It’s my job to work day and night to find a solution,” Fasel said Monday. “That’s why people elected me. But we played 70 years without the NHL. And then, in 1998, we started — so five (Olympics) now — and we have to find a common way.
“Not having the pros would definitely impact the value of the Winter Games.”
The good news is that both the players’ union and the league appear willing to continue Olympic participation.
Since 1998, the International Olympic Committee has covered the transportation costs for NHL players travelling to such faroff places as Nagano, Turin and Sochi. The IOC in April decided to scale back spending on travel, insurance and accommodations, costs which reportedly totalled more than $20 million.
The IIHF doesn’t have enough in its budget to cover these expenditures. Fasel, who recently met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, believes the league isn’t interested in footing the bill.
“I think the NHL is doing enough,” Fasel said. “Gary said to me, ‘Rene, we don’t pay the insurance and transportation.’ So we have to find somebody to pay that. For us, it will be very diffcult. We have to find ways to bring the money together. It’s not easy, but hopefully we will make it.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly echoed Fasel’s sentiments in an email.
“Rene is a friend of hockey and a champion for the sport,” Daly wrote Monday, “and I know he is working hard to do whatever he can to offer us a realistic and reasonable opportunity to participate on terms consistent with our past Olympic Games.”
The NHL’s competing at the Olympics always has been a contentious issue.
Russian players threatened to leave their NHL teams and play for their home country before the NHL agreed to go to Sochi three years ago, while owners are known to gripe about what suspending action midseason can do to revenue.
But this year, Fasel said, the situation “is even more diffcult” than in years past. The NHL agrees.
“We have certainly been made aware of the challenges that the IIHF has been faced with in securing the same terms and accommodations to facilitate NHL participation in the upcoming Winter Olympics,” said Daly, who has plans to meet with Fasel in Moscow later in the week.
The World Cup of Hockey, in Toronto from Sept. 17 through Oct. 1, is part of the challenge.
The reimagined eightteam, bestonbest tournament could end up becoming just that, especially when you consider that it will be played in prime time and won’t interrupt the NHL season.
Fasel said he is “a really great fan of the World Cup” but added the lure of winning an Olympic gold medal is like nothing else in sports — something some players competing at the worlds agree with.
“I think it would be very disappointing if we didn’t get to go,” said Canadian forward Matt Duchene, who won a gold medal at the 2014 Olympics.
“The World Cup is a little bit different. In the Olympics, you get to compete for a gold medal. It’s a onceinalifetime opportunity.”
Added teammate Corey Perry, a double gold medallist: “The Olympics are such a unique event for players. Everybody wants to play in the Olympics, but at the same time if it doesn’t work then it doesn’t work. It’s something that I think some guys want to do.”
In an ideal situation, the NHL would probably prefer to sit out the 2018 Olympics and then come back for 2022 in Beijing, which represents a major opportunity to grow the sport in China.
But Fasel said you can’t just pick and choose which Olympics you go to.
Put simply, if players don/t come to Pyeongchang, they can’t expect to go to Beijing.
“It’s not about playing in the more interesting place to play,” said Fasel.
“To be consistent and to be credible, they should also come to 2018. The good point I have is that the players also want to come.”
Now, it’s a matter of getting there.