NHL players to participate in 2022 Olympic Games

NHL players are going to the 2022 Olympics.

The league, players association and International Ice Hockey Federation announced Friday that they reached an agreement to participate in the Beijing Games, scheduled to begin Feb. 4. Striking a deal was a priority for players, who fought for Olympic participation in a 2020 collective bargaining agreement extension after the NHL sat out in 2018.

The agreement allows the league or players association to back out if COVID-19 conditions are deemed to be unsafe.

“We understand how passionately NHL players feel about representing and competing for their countries,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement. “We are very pleased that we were able to conclude arrangements that will allow them to resume best-on-best competition at the Olympic stage.”

The deal, which the two sides have been working on for months, means the Olympics will feature NHL players for the sixth time and the first time since 2014. It also means the league will have a break in its schedule from Feb. 7 to 22 to accommodate the Games. The Knights, for instance, play Feb. 1 against Buffalo but not again until Feb. 25 against Arizona. All-Star Weekend at T-Mobile Arena will still take place Feb. 4 and 5.

Twelve nations will participate in the Olympics: Canada, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Latvia, the Russian Olympic Committee, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. The countries will be divided into three groups for pool play. Group A features Canada, China, Germany and the U.S. Group B has the Czech Republic, Demark, the Russian Olympic Committee and Switzerland. Group C comprises Finland, Latvia, Slovakia and Sweden.

Each team will play three games in its group before four rounds of elimination games. Each group winner receives a bye into the second round, as well as the highest-ranked second-place team. The schedule is set to be released in the coming weeks.

“I know that I can speak for hockey fans around the world when I say that we absolutely welcome the decision to bring back best-on-best ice hockey to the Olympics,” IIHF president Rene Fasel said in a statement. “We had many constructive discussions, and a lot of hard work was put into making this happen within the time we set out for ourselves.”

The Knights could be represented on several teams.

Coach Pete DeBoer will be an assistant on Team Canada’s staff. The team’s director of hockey operations, Misha Donskov, will be Canada’s special assistant of coaching operations.

The Knights’ likely player participants include captain Mark Stone and defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore (Canada), center William Karlsson and goaltender Robin Lehner (Sweden) and left wing Max Pacioretty (U.S.). Left wing Jonathan Marchessault (Canada), right wing Evgenii Dadonov (Russian Olympic Committee) and left wing Mattias Janmark (Sweden) could also get national team looks.

“(The Olympics have) for sure been a dream for as long as I can remember,” Janmark said after re-signing with the Knights. “You always watch that growing up back in Sweden. It’s been far from reality for me, but I think if I can play some good hockey, there’s maybe going to be an opportunity there. For sure, I’m looking forward to performing pretty good up until then and giving myself the best chance I have to get taken.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.