NHL players will not attend the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the league announced on Wednesday.
The league said the decision was made due to the disruption in the regular-season schedule as a result of the rising number of COVID-19 cases throughout the league.
“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,” commissioner Gary Bettman said in a statement.
The league currently has more than 15 per cent of its players in virus protocol, which means they are sidelined from playing due to testing positive or having close contact with a positive case.
Donald Fehr, executive director of National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA), agreed a full NHL schedule is important to maintain and that he expects players to be able to attend the next Olympics.
“Certainly, the players and hockey fans are quite disappointed,” Fehr said in a statement. “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.”
More to come
WATCH l What’s next for Olympic hockey in NHL’s absence?:
With the COVID-19 cases (and game postponements) piling up, the league and its players agreed to withdraw from the Beijing Olympics. 3:26