Hurricanes aren’t going to the Olympics. NHL won’t allow players to compete in Beijing
National Hockey League players must put their Olympic hopes on hold — again.
The NHL has reached the decision that increasing positive tests for COVID-19 and a major disruption of the league’s 2021-22 regular-season schedule make it necessary for the players to sit out the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, China. The official announcement was made Wednesday.
The NHL plans to use the dates that were set aside for the Olympics, from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22, to make up postponed games and prevent a crush of games late in the regular season. The NHL announced a pause this week from Wednesday through Christmas Day that added to the number of games that will need to be rescheduled — 50 at last count.
The NHL Players Association did not oppose the league decision. The NHL had the right to withdraw from the Olympics for a “material disruption” to the season caused by COVID-19.
“The National Hockey League respects and admires the desire of NHL players to represent their countries and participate in a ‘best on best’ tournament,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said Wednesday in a statement. “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.
“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. ...We look forward to Olympic participation in 2026.”
The Carolina Hurricanes have four games that need to be rescheduled, one at home and three on the road. The Canes (21-7-1), who lead the Metropolitan Division, were to have played at Ottawa on Thursday and now are scheduled to play their next game Monday at PNC Arena against the Florida Panthers.
It’s the second consecutive Winter Olympics that NHL players have not been allowed to participate.
The NHL withheld its players from the 2018 Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, following disputes with the International Olympic Committee over costs incurred by the players for travel and insurance. There also were concerns about the potential for major injuries during the Olympics.
Many NHL players set their sights on 2022. The coming of the pandemic stopped the 2019-20 season and condensed the 2021 season, but many players were hopeful that vaccines and boosters for COVID-19 would prove to be effective and the Winter Games in Beijing would go on as planned.
Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho was named as an early provisional selection for Team Finland. Several other Canes appeared to be near-locks to be chosen by their home countries, among them goalie Frederik Andersen (Denmark); forwards Teuvo Teravainen (Finland), Andrei Svechnikov (Russia), Martin Necas (Czech) and Nino Niederreiter (Switzerland), and defenseman Jaccob Slavin (Team USA).
But the delta and omicron variants have heightened the risk of catching COVID-19 and the NHL’s COVID protocol list began adding names at a rapid rate in the past month. The Canes first had defenseman Ethan Bear go into the protocol. He has been followed by defensemen Brett Pesce, Tony DeAngelo, Ian Cole, and Brendan Smith; and forwards Jordan Staal, Svechnikov, Seth Jarvis, Steven Lorentz and Aho.
A major complicating factor for the Olympics this year was China’s proposed quarantine rules. The International Olympic Committee said any athlete testing positive in China must produce two negative results 24 hours apart or enter a quarantine period that could last from three to five weeks.
“If I’m a player and thinking about going to China with the potential to get stuck there, I’ve got to think twice about that,” Canes president and general manager Don Waddell said last week. ”Especially players who have young families. They would be gone from right after the All-Star break and depending how far you go into the (Olympic) playoffs, you could be gone for three weeks. And then if something bad happened and you get COVID, you’d be stuck for another three or four or five weeks.”
Niederreiter competed for his country in the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and hoped to have another Olympic experience this year. But there was a lot to consider.
“It is a concern, being stuck over there through the whole quarantine,” Niederreiter said Monday. “At the end of the day when you have a chance to represent your country it’s a huge honor and you want to do it. At the same time, there’s a lot at stake.”
If the Olympics are held, many of the hockey teams will resemble those from 2018, with rosters filled with collegiate, minor-league and recently retired players. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be held in Italy.
“Until very recently, we seemed to be on a clear path to go to Beijing,” NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said Wednesday in a statement. “COVID-19 has unfortunately intervened, forcing dozens of games to be postponed this month alone. No matter how much we wish it were not the case, we need to utilize the Olympic period to reschedule these games.
“Certainly, the players and hockey fans are quite disappointed. But playing a full 82-game season this year, something the pandemic has prevented us from doing since the 2018-19 season, is very important. We expect that NHL players will return to the Olympics in 2026.”
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 10:10 AM with the headline "Hurricanes aren’t going to the Olympics. NHL won’t allow players to compete in Beijing."
