The Tokyo Olympics are just weeks away, but due to COVID-19 pushing the summer Games back one year, the next Winter Olympics are not far off, either. One of the biggest questions still surrounding the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing is if NHL players will be present.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman still isn't sure if the league will have players at the next Games. Bettman pointed to safety concerns, as well as a tight time frame, as reasons that the league is still hesitant to send its players to Beijing next winter.
"We have real concerns about whether or not it's sensible to be participating," Bettman told the Associated Press on Monday night. "We're already past the time that we hoped this would be resolved. We'll deal with it, just as we've managed to be agile and flexible over the last 15 months. But we're getting to be on a rather short time frame now because this can't go on indefinitely."
Regardless of the NHL's participation in the Games, the league is releasing its schedule for next season before the 2021 draft on July 23. If players will be allowed to play in the 2022 Olympics, the NHL will need include some sort of break -- that would last multiple weeks -- in action on their schedule.
Outside of the scheduling, "outstanding issues" between both sides "include health questions regarding the coronavirus pandemic, and including COVID-19-related insurance issues," according to the Associated Press.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly echoed what Bettman said about the situation.
"There's a lot of uncertainty and unknowns that we're trying to grapple with, and that takes time," Daly said.
The NHL skipped the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, but had participated in five consecutive Olympics prior to that.
