2014 Olympics and the NHL (UPD: NHL, NHLPA, IIHF, IOC meeting this week)
 

Okay, so between watching Miracle and tape-delayed World Junior games, I'm getting desperate for hockey. And I know this is probably one of the lowest priorities right now as far as hammering out a CBA goes. But I was just wondering if anyone had heard if the league was including this in whatever their latest offer is. I'm pretty sure I remember that in past conversations that the owners weren't thrilled with this idea, but the players definitely wanted it, especially players like Malkin and Ovechkin, since the Olympics will be in Russia.

I hope they don't allow NHL players to participate. I've had enough NHL shut-downs to last a lifetime.

Don't look at it as an nhl shut down - look at it as a mere reshuffling of teams ;) Hockey is still played - at quite a high level.

If the nhl doesn't allow players to participate in the 2014 games, then that's another nail the nhl's coffin.

Not a fan of NHL players in the Olympics...I always thought the Olympics was about amateur athletes, not paid professionals...?

KHL players are paid professionals. So are the players in Finnish, Swedish, Swiss, Czech, German top levels etc. So they shouldn't be there either?

It hasn't been that way in any sport in quite some time.

Having NHL players in The Olympics, is a huge boost for hockey interesset around the world.
So if there are no NHL's players in the Olympics, there are one big looser.....Hockey.

I bet if The Olympics where held in let say Rogers Arena again, you be all for it. Don't be negative just because it happens to be in Russia this time.

No way, I just don't think the Olympics, any sport, should have paid pro athletes in them...just an old guy I guess...;)

Pray tell where would one find the hockey players to fill a Canadian Olympic team if they were not paid by someone somewhere? Beer leaguers? Or make it another rehash of the world Junior tournament only exclude AHLers?

I think there used to be an Olympic program of sorts...that's where these types of players could come from...

I am always in favour of more chances to see the world's best hockey players compete in something that is not the NHL.

The NHL is an awful league with a horribly diluted talent pool. The Olympics is the best hockey anyone can ever hope to watch.

When was the Olympics ever about amateur athletes?

How can someone or some country claim to be the best at something when the best aren't even competing in it?

Hyperbole aside, I agree.

NHL Playoffs > Olympics, by far.

Olympics is the highest quality hockey in the world no doubt,but i do wonder how would Canadian team for example look without NHL players,can anyone make a roster without NHL players to send to Olympics? (just out of pure speculation)

Did you ever watch the olympics before the NHLers were in it?? Remember lake Placid?

The Olympic Movement originally considered professionalism as an disease of modern society. But that's an idea of the 19th century that has faded a long time ago.

Yeah, and many of them were pros anyway. In 1994 Hirsh & Nedved were on team Canada after they were already playing Pro. 1992 Dave Tippet and Sean Burke both played in the Olympics after playing pro (and played pro again after). I'm sure there are many more examples.

The Olympics officially allowed professionals in 86 I think, but in reality they did it cause the Eastern Bloc countries were for years paying their athletes a full wage to train year round anyway.

Why should there be a distinction between an athlete making money because people pay to watch him vs an athlete making money cause a sponser pays them to train. The definition of amateur athletics the original olympics had pretty much doesn't exist anymore.

The idea also worked because the best athletes in the world were generally amateurs at the time. A career in professional sports was not considered viable so when a a college star was finished college, they were also generally finished with sports. Professional football was still generally dominated by amateurs until around the late 40s or early 50s.

I think originally, amateur athletes were often nobility and the wealthy, those who could afford to train in such leisurely, gentlemanly, pursuits. Perhaps not the noblest of ideals to glamorize now.

I remember much talk about how whether there would be olympic participation, similar to realignment, would be big bargaining chips in cba talks, and yet i havent really heard boo from either yet. Maybe they could give the owners their foolishly conceived temporary realignment until expansion plan in exchange for olympic participation?

Of course given the damage to the games hrr generation abilities and the half season losses already, neither side may see the monetary advantage of doing it. Although with the cap scheduled to drop that year making it a bit of a circus season anyway, perhaps it would be a nice distraction?

I thought the 2 sides would trade re-alignment for the players right to play in Olympics. I would weight those 2 items fairly evenly.

I agree, and it's a poor idea, imo. Why exclude the best athletes when trying to decide which athletes are the best?

N0 wai dude: Nothing beats the best of the best tournament that is the Olympics.

In last year's final the top 3 point getters and top 5 goal scorers weren't even playing.

I dont really know either, as you say, it hasnt been brought up much, nor discussed. The NHL isnt getting a fair shake from the IOC though, no share of Broadcast Revenues for effectively shutting down for 2wks, providing the talent for what are effectively the "glamour events" of the Winter Games. Theres also the issue of insurance & club access to the players during the Olympics which is restricted. Theres no love lost between the NHL & Rene Fasel who is not only the head of the IIHF but also sits on the IOC Board as Director of Hockey. Pretty messed up situation really. I do sympathize with the NHL on this issue, and really, unless the IOC coughs up, Id be pulling participation, creating a World Cup or whatever to replace Olympic participation altogether.