Two hot topics in the NHL are player participation in the upcoming 2018 Winter Olympics and the future of the next collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NHLPA. In an effort to address both issues at once, the NHL proposed that the league’s players would be allowed to compete in the Olympics if they agreed to extend the CBA in its current form. That motion has been formally rejected by the NHLPA.
[link_box id=”22277″ site_id=”17″ layout=”link-box-third” alignment=”alignright”]Via TSN:
NHLPA executive director Don Fehr said that the players, primarily the executive board, showed no interest in the idea.
“So hopefully we’ll still be able to conclude an agreement to go to the Olympics,” Fehr told The Canadian Press in an exclusive interview. “We still think it’s important and we’ll go from there.”
The NHL’s offer specifically stated that the players would be allowed to compete in the 2018 Olympics, but it would come at a cost of extending the current CBA through 2025 and removing an opt-out clause which is currently in place if either side wants to kill the deal in the fall of 2019.
The players reportedly quickly rejected the offer as they feel the CBA needs to be altered and the league’s proposal only offered the Olympics to the players rather than addressing other issues. The players felt extending the current CBA would represent full careers for some players under an agreement that many in the league aren’t pleased with.
Recently, Brad Marchand publicly spoke about the CBA and said that while he wants to play in the Olympics (calling it the game’s highest level), he wouldn’t do it at the cost of extending the CBA. On the other side, the league’s owners aren’t keen on paying for their players to skate in the Olympics while also shutting down the league for a two-week period.
Many believe that the NHL’s current distaste in the Olympics will fade come 2022. While 2018’s tournament will be in South Korea and will represent an opportunity to grow the game in a new location, 2022’s tournament is scheduled for Beijing, China and represents an even bigger opportunity for the league to grow. The NHL is reportedly looking into playing an exhibition in China in the near future which would add merit to the idea that the league won’t sit out the 2022 Olympics.
It might be too early to worry about another lockout, but it is clear that the NHL and the NHLPA have more issues than just the Olympics to worry about before reaching a new agreement.
