NHL plans hiatus for 2022 Winter Olympics; player participation not yet guaranteed

The 2021-22 NHL regular season schedule will include a break for the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, sources with knowledge of the schedule confirmed on Monday.

The Olympic break is reportedly scheduled for February 5-22, 2022. The schedule, which will be released Thursday, is expected to include a caveat that the NHL’s participation in the 2022 Winter Games is not yet guaranteed.

The opening ceremonies for the Beijing Games are scheduled for February 4, 2022. The preliminary round matches of the men’s ice hockey tournament are scheduled to begin around February 9.

The NHL has announced that the 2022 All-Star Weekend will be held in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena “during the traditional mid-season of the regular season.” The NHL All-Star Game will be the last event on the ice before the Olympic break, but it is not known if it is considered part of that break.

After skipping the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympics, the NHL agreed to allow its players to return to the Olympics in 2022 and 2026 as part of the four-year extension of the collective agreement with the Players Association of the NHL last summer. But the deal did not guarantee that NHL players would represent their country at the Winter Games. The league has yet to sort out issues with the International Olympic Committee which the NHL says prevented players from leaving in 2018.

“We negotiated in good faith with the Players’ Association last summer,” Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly said last month. “We agreed that if the conditions were right and we could come to an agreement on all the material issues that we would engage and support for the Olympics. That remains our position.”

Ahead of the Stanley Cup Final, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said there were “real concerns about whether or not it is reasonable for our players to participate and for us to stop for a break. Olympic ”. Among these concerns: the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the Beijing Games.

“With the uncertainty surrounding the virus lingering, with the Games taking place halfway around the world, not necessarily the ideal Games to go,” Daly said.

Sources told ESPN last week that the deal between the NHL and the IOC was “still in the works”, but it is expected that a deal could be reached in late July.