NHL v 2018 Winter Olympics

ForeverAddickted

The NHL are refusing to allow any of its players to go to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea (Pyeongchang), because the Tournament will take place midway through, the NHL are unwilling to halt the season for three weeks... It'll be interesting to see if players ignore the rules and attend the Olympics anyway.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/ice-hockey/39486960

Once again creates a huge Club v Country argument across the whole of Sport as Sweden | Finland | Russia | United States | Canada could all be forced to field players from minor Leagues to make up the numbers.

Of course its a completely different scenario / sporting body etc. but makes you wonder if the likes of the Premier League / La Liga could do this ahead of the World Cup in Qatar.

se9addick

Football has infinetely more money, FIFA will pay big compensation to the clubs for releasing their players and the big sportswear companies, who already pay the big clubs tens/hundreds of millions will demand that their stars are there.

More to the point the players shouldn't be going to Qatar because it's a slave state but that's a different story.

ForeverAddickted

se9addick said:

Football has infinetely more money, FIFA will pay big compensation to the clubs for releasing their players and the big sportswear companies, who already pay the big clubs tens/hundreds of millions will demand that their stars are there.

More to the point the players shouldn't be going to Qatar because it's a slave state but that's a different story.

Agreed... I think the Club v Country type row is stupid and that clubs shouldn't be able to dictate to the National Teams (like what the NHL is doing) but at the same time I want to see FIFA screwed over ahead of Qatar and if the Premier League / La Liga / Bundesliga / Serie A are able to refuse the release of their players then thats great.

The problem is though it could set a dangerous chain of events for future World Cup's regardless where they're held (and when they're held in Summer) as clubs again might not want their players taking part so they can have a rest after the season.

Missed It

The John Tavares injury at the Sochi Olympics probably didn't help.

SheedyCAFC

All about the money in the NHL - they don't care for the sport. If the players cared for their country then they should go regardless, Alexander Ovechkin is... what would the NHL do? Ban their star players?

SomervilleAddick

I don't think they've said players can't go to the Olympics. What they've said is that they are not going to take a 3 week break to allow players to go.

The owner of the Caps has already said he'll let Ovechkin go. But it now becomes a team (owner) decision. And most of them will say no.

It's really a stare down about money. If the Olympics would let the NHL use the Olympics as a marketing tool(rather than just player exposure) they might consider it. But the Olympics want players with no strings attached and the owners say Korea won't do anything to boost their profits so why bother. The rumor is they'll offer to come back in 2022 as they see China as a growth market.