Huge hurdle cleared for NHL participation at Olympic Qualifiers
While there has still been no official announcement about NHLers participating at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, we are learning that a huge hurdle has been cleared that should see them involved in the qualifying tournament for the Olympics. According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the Players Association has told him that the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has agreed to purchase COVID insurance for those who go to the qualifiers.
"IIHF has agreed to purchase insuranceincluding COVID coveragefor NHL players participating in Olympic qualifiers, per PA," said Brooks.
The NHLPA had advised members not to take part in the qualifying tournament at the end of this month because of the insurance issue. Without it, players who went and missed time due to contracting COVID would not be compensated by the NHL. Not all teams are impacted by this. 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.
The hope now is that this will extend to the Olympics itself. The NHL has insisted it wants COVID insurance in order for players to take part. The league has released to possible schedules for the upcoming season, one that includes a break for the Olympics and one that doesn't.
|
YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
| ||||
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||