Organizers demand April answer as patriotic players oppose no-go

NEW YORK - The NHL has been issued a deadline to decide whether to allow the world's best hockey players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

"I hope we can find a compromise in the next two or three weeks," International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel told Associated Press on Thursday in a telephone interview from Russia.

"We need to know by the end of April if they're coming, or not."

Fasel said leaders of national teams, including those in Canada and Russia, have recently told him they need to know next month if it is time for them to assemble their Plan B rosters.

The IIHF, the game's international governing body, runs the Olympics hockey tournament.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has made it clear league owners don't want to stop their season for three weeks again and put their stars at risk of injury without what they consider a tangible return.

The reluctance has come up in the past and yet the NHL has participated in every Winter Olympics since 1998. Four years ago, the discussions weren't settled until midsummer 2013 ahead of the Sochi Games.

This time, however, there seems to be a more serious impasse.

After the International Olympic Committee (IOC) indicated it did not want to cover travel and insurance costs to get NHL players to South Korea as it did in the past, including about $14 million for the 2014 Olympics, the IIHF came up with the $10 million necessary to do it.

That, however, does not appear to be enough to appease the NHL. The league wants more, including the rights to put Olympic highlights on its TV network, website and social media.

"In the absence of any material change to the current status quo, NHL players will not be participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics," NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly wrote in an email to AP.

Don Fehr, the head of the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), said all its members want to participate. He believes the NHL should take advantage of the chance to market the game in Asia, which will host the next two Winter Olympics.

"Playing in an Olympic Games is fundamentally different than playing in other tournaments, other hockey events, because it's an opportunity to play for your country on a global stage with fans watching who never otherwise watch hockey games," Fehr said.

"There's a patriotic element, too, which players feel very strongly and it's something we should applaud and be proud of for them. To take that opportunity away would be most unfortunate."

The NHL has acknowledged it isn't excited about the prospects of marketing the sport in South Korea, but it is very interested in being part of the 2022 Olympics in China.

Fasel suggested that might not be an option.

"If they don't go to Korea, it will be very difficult for them to go to Beijing," Fasel said. "The IOC will be in a different position and it would be a totally different deal on the table for the NHL.

"The NHL has more to lose than to win if they don't come to Pyeongchang. If they don't come, they will isolate themselves.

"The fans will not be happy and the players won't be happy and then I would say, 'Good luck with negotiations to go to China.'"

Even if the NHL doesn't set up next season's schedule with an Olympic break, Washington Capitals and Russian superstar Alex Ovechkin has vowed to go to the 2018 Olympics, and he may not be the only one to test the league's stance.

"Everybody wants to go there," Ovechkin said.

The dispute has become a factor in labor negotiations.

Olympic hockey got tangled into the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHLPA a few months ago.

The league asked the union if it would eliminate its opt-out option in 2019 and extend the labor pact three years through the 2024-25 season in exchange for participating in a sixth consecutive Games.

"That's about as overtly a collective bargaining approach as you can have," Fehr said. "If this doesn't get worked out, it's very likely in the next go-around it does become a bargaining issue."

Associated Press