NHL Players Officially Not Going To Olympics

The NHL and NHLPA have officially made the decision that NHL players will not going to the 2022 Winter Olympics.

No surprise, but #NHL + #NHLPA are in agreement that NHL players will not participate in #Beijing2022 Olympics. Once they notify IOC, an official announcement will come - perhaps as soon as today, maybe later this week.

Now, question is: Will 2022 Olympics be postponed to 2023? https://t.co/8aR0aKmqNl
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 21, 2021

Earlier this week, we reported that both sides were having discussions about what to do for the Olympics and were leaning towards this decision. Ultimately, it makes sense, as the league is currently being hit immensely hard with COVID-19 cases and there haven't been any signs of it stopping. With that, the NHL just suspended all operations until after Christmas Day, so that certainly didn't help things.

Although it would have been a lot of fun to see NHLers play in Beijing, it simply wasn't worth all the risk. If they went and a player caught COVID-19, they would have had to quarantine in the hotel for three-to-five weeks. That would have been brutal for these players and with how contagious this new variant is, it inevitably would have happened.

Alas, we will now have to wait more time until we see NHLers back at the Winter Olympics. Although there was a ton of excitement from fans, it just couldn't happen in 2022.