NHL, NHLPA Drop from Olympics

Making a hard decision based on recent COVID-19 developments and concerns, the National Hockey League and NHL Players' Association jointly announced Wednesday NHL players will not be participating in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing Feb. 3 to Feb 20.
As the league postponed 50 regular-season games in the last week due to a sharp increase in positive test results and players entering 10-day protocols, the NHL and NHLPA concurrently held discussions about the Beijing Olympics.

"The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL Players to represent their countries and participate in a 'best on best' tournament. Accordingly, we have waited as long as possible to make this decision while exploring every available option to enable our Players to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "Unfortunately, given the profound disruption to the NHL's regular-season schedule caused by recent COVID-related events -- 50 games already have been postponed through Dec. 23 -- Olympic participation is no longer feasible.
NHL players haven't participated in the Olympics since 2014 when Canada won the gold medal in Sochi, Russia, while Sweden took the silver and Finland won bronze. The league did not allow NHLers to play the 2018 Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang, South Korea, due to a dispute with the International Olympic Committee about covering travel and insurance costs for players while overseas.
The NHL and NHLPA had negotiated Olympic participation in 2022 and 2026 into the most recent collective bargaining. There was a caveat for the Beijing Olympics. If the current NHL regular season was "materially impacted" by COVID-19 postponements, the league and players association could withdraw. The NHL had until Jan. 10 to opt out of Olympic participation without financial penalty.