NHL reportedly reconsidering plan to send players to Winter Olympics

After promising NHL players they could go to the Winter Olympics in 2022 after missing the games in 2018, it appears the league is having second thoughts. According to former player and podcast host Andrew Peters, the league no longer wants to send players to Beijing in February, and the issue will be discussed further on Friday at the NHL's Board of Governors meeting.

If anyone is wondering whether Peters has credibility, he was noted as being the first to break the Jack Eichel to the Vegas Golden Knights trade very early in the morning, long before most sports networks had it on their reports.

At issue here, of course, is that COVID is still running rampant in many parts of the world. Players attending the Olympics will essentially be in a locked down bubble the whole time they are there and subjected to daily testing. Anyone who catches COVID while in Beijing could be looking at being stuck in the country for some time depending on the severity of the case. This is something the league is hoping to avoid at all costs as it would make things difficult to continue its own season if there's a large outbreak.

There is also speculation that players are having second thoughts about going to the Olympics despite being adamant that they attend just a year or two ago. While players are pumped about representing their countries on the international stage, no one wants to jeopardize their NHL team's season. Vegas Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner has already informed Team Sweden that he will not be attending. There's also the human rights issue as several countries, including the US and Canada, have stated they will not send government delegations to China during the Winter Games.

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