Olympic dream eludes NHL’s youngest stars

The NHL became entwined with the Olympics before young stars like Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel or Auston Matthews even pulled on a pair of skates.

Nagano in 1998 started a string of five consecutive Olympics featuring NHL players, a tradition that became so routine that young players around the world added dreams of winning a gold medal to their hopes of someday lifting the Stanley Cup.

“I’ve always been alive in the days where the NHL teams allow their players to go to the Olympics,” Eichel said. “I’ve had a lot of good memories watching the Olympics and seeing a lot of great players play, so it’s something you’ve always looked up to.”

There’s nothing to look forward to this time: instead of going to South Korea this winter to play for their home countries, NHL players face an 82-game season that will keep right on going during the Olympics.

The Games will instead include a mix of players from the minors, colleges and Europe.

Almost six months since the league announced it would skip the PyeongChang Olympics, most of the NHL’s best players are resigned to their missed opportunity. That Canada won’t have Sidney Crosby and Jonathan Toews to go for the three-peat, that McDavid, Matthews and Eichel won’t make their Olympic debuts quite yet.

“It’s very disappointing you’re not going to have the chance to be there when we have as short of careers as we do,” Swedish defenceman and Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson said. “It’s going to be some guys’ only opportunity to go.”

The league believes playing exhibition games in China and regular-season games in Sweden does more to grow the game than the Olympics.

NBC Sports will be showing the Olympics in the U.S., with no NHL games scheduled on its networks from Feb. 8-25.