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DatsyukianDekes

NHL players will not participate in 2018 Olympics (Mod Post #99)

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During a Friday afternoon appearance on TSN 1050 Radio in Toronto, TSN reporter Darren Dreger passed along the news that the NHL "will not" participate in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, which will be hosted in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

http://beta.thescore.com/nhl/news/427461

Not really that surprising. When do Olympic clauses start getting introduced ? :lol:

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Olympic Hockey will never be good again. I sincerely hope the World Cup will be revived in the next couple years. This sport needs ultra-high-level international competition.

On the World Cup subject, I'd like to see them have the top 7 countries (USA, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Czech, Slovakia, Russia) and an 8th team made up of players from all other countries, an IIHF/"World" team.

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In my opinion it loses a tremendous amount of entertainment value overall but I can understand why they are pulling out.

2014 may be a historical last year with NHL players being involved, enjoy it while it's here because who knows when it might happen again.

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Doubt that this happens. The Euros all have other leagues they can play in and will for one year. The NA players don't, so if it appears that the US and Canada are going to get hammered, pressure will rise and they will play.

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Doubt that this happens. The Euros all have other leagues they can play in and will for one year. The NA players don't, so if it appears that the US and Canada are going to get hammered, pressure will rise and they will play.

Huh? I don't get what you're saying. The European players are going to play in a different league for a year so they can play in the Olympics? I some how don't see that happening. I don't think its THAT big of a thing.

The USA hasn't won a gold medal since 1980. No one really cares. Canada hasn't dominated the Olympic games since the NHL has participated either. Canada hasn't been a powerhouse internationally of late either.

I don't see why they don't just play in the Summer Olympics. Basketball does and its a "Winter" sport. No reason you can't switch things like gymnastics or swimming to the Winter games.

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2018 Olympics:

Gold: Russia (capt. Kovalchuck)

Silver: USA (capt. Chelios)

Bronze: Sweden (capt. Samuelsson)

Seriously, if the NHL pulls out and other leagues (SEL, KHL, etc.) still play, we can pretty much kiss good-bye the hope of ever winning a medal for the US or Canada again.

I think the Russians will dominate.

I doubt that the big names making big money and/or the franchise players will purposely take on contracts that will leave them free agents in Olympic years, but some guys who are borderline players who happen to be free agents might consider playing abroad so that they'd be free to get the chance to play in the Olympics.

If we're watering down the pool, guys like Hudler, who will be 34 in 2018, might leave the NHL early for the chance to play if they've never been chosen before.

I know it will kill my interest in Olympic hockey if I don't know any of the names.

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Huh? I don't get what you're saying. The European players are going to play in a different league for a year so they can play in the Olympics? I some how don't see that happening. I don't think its THAT big of a thing.

The USA hasn't won a gold medal since 1980. No one really cares. Canada hasn't dominated the Olympic games since the NHL has participated either. Canada hasn't been a powerhouse internationally of late either.

I don't see why they don't just play in the Summer Olympics. Basketball does and its a "Winter" sport. No reason you can't switch things like gymnastics or swimming to the Winter games.

Of course not, they only won gold in 2010.

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This is all about money - nothing more, nothing less. The olympics generate money that the NHL doesn't see, and the billionaires and multi-millionaires who own the NHL teams cannot stand that.

Thankfully the players see it differently. They don't get paid for the Olympics, but its still a big deal to them. Remember how Ovechkin said he would go AWOL if the NHL wouldn't release the players for Sochi?

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Guess what NHL ? The players if they want to will go anyways but after seeing the conditions in Sochi I'm not surprised if some would pull out of that. Add to the that the ridiculous time difference (games at 6am anyone?!). Multi billonaires can't stand a standstill for two weeks unbelievable how greedy some of them are, must be a pleasure to work for them in normal life...

Can't wait till players are asking for olympic clauses *g*

Edited by frankgrimes

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Of course not, they only won gold in 2010.

I didn't say Canada didn't win a gold medal, I said since the NHL has participated in the Olympics that Canada hasn't dominated, in response to the assumption that the US and Canada will panic if they don't win gold after the NHL doesn't participate. Canada hasn't won gold at the World Juniors since 2009.

I don't blame the owners for not wanting to participate. Why should they? Especially when you have players who aren't thinking about the NHL season, you know, the job that they owners are paying them for, and worrying about being healthy enough for the Olympics. The games have not brought about the surge in attention that the NHL expected. It hasn't boosted ratings. The people watching are already NHL fans. Its exciting to us as Red Wings fans because we have so many international players. But for those teams that don't? Are their fans tuning in to watch? Are the women who are watching figure skating tuning out and watching the hockey instead? No. But yet, the NHL owners are supposed to "loan" out their biggest business assets for nothing, not get a lot in return, possibly getting damaged goods back, and they're supposed to support this? Do you think the players would all be on board if they had to sacrifice a few million dollars of their own money to go? Or if getting injured would void their NHL contract? Somehow I'm thinking they wouldn't have quite as much patriotism.

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Guess what NHL ? The players if they want to will go anyways but after seeing the conditions in Sochi I'm not surprised if some would pull out of that. Add to the that the ridiculous time difference (games at 6am anyone?!). Multi billonaires can't stand a standstill for two weeks unbelievable how greedy some of them are, must be a pleasure to work for them in normal life...

Can't wait till players are asking for olympic clauses *g*

So players are going to go awol on their contracts? Did any of them do this before 1998? I'm not recalling it ever happening. It isn't like the NHL has been there forever. The conditions is Sochi aren't unlike conditions in other Olympic Villages. Where do fans get the idea that the athletes are put up in 5 star luxury hotel conditions? Only the spoiled professional athletes and the fans expect that.

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I could see Ovechkin for sure heading to the Olympics, and any contracts that come up in the next few years will either have a clause included that allows them to go, or won't cover the 17-18 season. Not all the players care enough enough to do that, but some of them do.

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They won't care if they aren't playing against the other best players in the league. That's what makes it appealing. Like I said, no NHL players broke contracts or had clauses put into their contracts to play in the Olympics before 1998. It wasn't important and it will again become unimportant.

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This will undoubtebtly pose as a problem for the recruitment of european players in the future.

Many players will decide to play in the olympics anyway, causing an issue with the league. Some will decide not to come to north america at all while they can make more money in the KHL and still represent their country

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So..... who goes? Won't this also exclude AHL players that have two-way or entry-level contracts with the big club? Its essentially just going to be WJC all over again, minus most of the real blue-chip prospects, sprinkled with the odd unsigned/retired veteran or undrafted player. I think Canada and U.S.A. will be hit hardest, so I'll be interested to see how long a ban like this will last when we are no longer getting much sniff at the medal stand. They (Bettman and NBC) would probably be taking a big ratings hit in what all of us would probably consider to be the most entertaining event among the variations of human torpedoing, skiing, and ice dancing.

It doesn't work like it did before the NHL started sending players. Nowadays, the best players should always play. Period.

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