N.H.L. Proceeds as if Its Players Will Play in Sochi In the strongest indication yet that the N.H.L. will participate in the next Winter Olympics, the league's deputy commissioner said Friday that it had drawn up plans to send its players to Sochi, Russia, next February. "We are proceeding under the assumption that the N.H.L. will participate in Sochi," Bill Daly, the deputy commissioner, said in Stockholm, where the International Ice Hockey Federation's world championship tournament is under way. "We are still working on important issues with the I.I.H.F. and the I.O.C., and subject to our board of governors" consideration and approval it remains the objective that Sochi will be the fifth consecutive Olympics with N.H.L. participation and where the N.H.L. shuts down for the duration of the Olympic tournament." Daly told a meeting of Olympic and international hockey officials that the N.H.L. plans to shut down next season's schedule Feb. 8 to allow participating players to take charter flights to Sochi, the I.I.H.F. Web site reported. The men's Olympic tournament opens Feb. 12. The N.H.L. season would resume Feb. 25, two days after the gold medal game at Sochi, Daly said. Daly outlined one point of contention that remains between the N.H.L. and Olympic officials: the league's desire to show Olympic hockey highlights on its own platforms: NHL Network and NHL.com. "We want to promote the fact that the N.H.L. and its players are participating in the Olympics during a period when our league shuts down," Daly told the meeting, according to the I.I.H.F.