Players reject longer CBA for Olympics play

At issue is IOC, IIHF paying NHLers’ costs

TORONTO • The NHL Players’ Association has f ormally rejected the league’s proposal to allow players to participate in the 2018 Olympics in exchange for an extension to the current collective bargaining agreement.

NHLPA executive director Don Fehr says that the players, primarily the executive board, showed no interest in the idea. He says he hopes “we’ll still be able to conclude an agreement to go to the Olympics.”

Fehr tells The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview that “we still think it’s ( playing in 2018) important and we’ll go from there.”

Under the plan, the NHL would green light participation in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games if the players agreed to extend the current contract by three years, eliminating a potential optout clause in the fall of 2019.

Had the players agreed, the CBA would have been extended to 2025, transforming it from an eightyear pact with an option to 10 years with three added on top of that.

Fehr said there was no appetite among players to extend the agreement for nine more seasons ( including this one) in what would effectively be the career lifespan of most players in the league today. There were elements of the agreement, he noted, that the PA wanted to further examine before it got into bargaining.

League officials did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

NHL players have participated in the last five Olympics and hope to return.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has been resistant to continuing to fund (along with the International Ice Hockey Federation) out- ofpocket payments for NHL players ( insurance, travel, accommodation primarily) to attend the Games.

The IOC and IIHF have covered these costs, upwards of US$ 10 million according to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, since 1998 when the NHL first began attending the Games.

The NHL board of governors will meet next week in Florida where it’ s expected that Olympic participation will garner considerable discussion among team owners.