NHLPA advises players not to take part in Olympic qualifiers

The organization representing NHL players is telling its members they should not take part in the Olympics qualifying tournament set to take place later this month. The reason is because international federations have advised the NHLPA they will not pay for insurance. Therefore, if a player got injured or ill in the qualifying tournament, they are on their own.

This advisory does not impact all teams. Canada, the United States, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland and host China have already qualified. 12 teams will take part on the qualifying tournament to determine the last three teams that will take part in the Olympic Games. Of those 12, Slovakia and Denmark are most likely to be impacted by the absence of NHL players. Slovakia's team could include names like Zdeno Chara, Jaroslav Halak, Andrej Sekera, Tomas Tatar, Richard Panik, Erik Cernak and others. Denmark will be a bit lighter, with potential names including Lars Eller, Nikolaj Ehlers and Frederik Andersen.

Besides this, the league has been told that players will not have COVID insurance should they play at the Olympics. If a player falls ill with COVID while taking part in the games, they will lose pay for however many games they miss.

It has not yet been officially decided whether NHL players will take part in the 2022 WInter Olympics in Beijing. There are still details that need to be ironed out. The league has released two versions of the schedule for the 2021-22 season; one with a break for the Olympics and one without.

Source: Sportsnet

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