IIHF releases statement regarding no NHL participation at 2022 Winter Olympics

On Monday morning, the National Hockey League announced that they would not be sending their players to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China due to COVID-19 concerns and the amount of games they have had to postpone.

Following that announcement, the International Ice Hockey Federation came out with a statement regarding the news.

"Although we are disappointed to receive this decision by the NHL and NHLPA, we nevertheless fully understand the circumstances that forced this action to be taken," said IIHF President Luc Tardif.

He added: "Throughout the discussions with the IOC, BOCOG, NHL, and NHLPA, we always operated with the understanding that this was a scenario that might occur. It was a shock to see how COVID-19 affected the NHL schedule almost overnight, and we understand the NHL's decision is in the best interest of the health and safety of its players."

"I thank Gary Bettman, Bill Daly, and Don Fehr for their willingness to engage and participate in all the discussions that led up to the NHL players agreeing to return to the Olympics. We look forward to further talks in the future to ensure that best-on-best hockey can return to the Games in 2026 and beyond. I also wish to sincerely thank all representatives from the IIHF, IOC, BOCOG, NHL, and NHLPA for their tireless work and commitment towards creating the conditions necessary for the players to return. While we were not able to achieve this goal for Beijing 2022, we have established many strong working relationships that will help us in future discussions."

It seems like the IIHF is very understanding when it comes to the reason why the NHL is backing out of Olympic participation. With fifty games needing to be postponed, and the NHL not wanting to extend their regular season into May, they will use some of the scheduled three-week Olympic break in February to make up games.

The NHL has now missed out on sending their players to the Olympics for the second consecutive time, but as per the CBA, they intend on having their players participate at the 2026 Olympics in Milan and Cortina, Italy.

Source: IIHF

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