NHL players won’t appear in 2018 Pyeongchang Games

TORONTO — The NHL has decided against interrupting its 2017-18 season so some of its players could participate in the Pyeongchang Olympics, the league announced Monday. NHL players had played in the past five Winter Olympics.

“We have previously made clear that while the overwhelming majority of our clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting the 2017-18 NHL season for purposes of accommodating Olympic participation by some NHL players, we were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue (e.g., the IOC, the IIHF, the NHLPA, etc.) as to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject,” the NHL said in a statement.

“A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized. Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL's participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018. And the NHLPAhas now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the clubs. As a result, and in an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 201718 regular season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games. We now consider the matter officially closed.”

While this decision will have a ripple effect across the NHL, no team will be under the spotlight more than the Washington Capitals. Star captain Alex Ovechkin has said he would represent Russia regardless of if the rest of the NHL joins him. Owner Ted Leonsis has backed Ovechkin publicly on more than one occasion.

But Ovechkin won't be the only Washington player who will want to go to Pyeongchang. Fellow Russians Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov played on Russia's World Cup of Hockey team.

“I know next Olympic Games is going to be huge for us, and we're all going to go,” Kuznetsov said before the season.

Top-line center Nicklas Backstrom would project to be on Sweden's Olympic team, and backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer helped Germany qualify for an Olympic berth. Goaltender Braden Holtby would be an option in net for Team Canada, and defensemen John Carlson and Matt Niskanen could garner Team USA consideration.

In February, Leonsis said he also would support other Capitals' players who wanted to participate in the Olympics, even with the NHL season still ongoing. That could leave Washington with a thin roster next February. It's also possible that Ovechkin and Leonsis set a precedent other marquee players and owners will follow.