Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman express their displeasure with the NHL deciding to not participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. (1:18)

The National Hockey League announced Monday that it would not be sending its players to the Olympics in South Korea in 2018, ending months of debate over the issue of participation in Pyeongchang.

The league had been looking for conciliatory offers from the International Olympic Committee and/or the NHL Players' Association in order to placate an ownership group increasingly unhappy with the league shutting down for weeks to take part in the Olympic tournament every four years.

That didn't happen in recent weeks, and the league made good on its promise to resolve the matter before the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin April 13.

"In an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 Regular Season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games," the league said in a release distributed Monday afternoon.

"We now consider the matter officially closed."

Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist also led Sweden to a gold medal in the 2006 Olympics. Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

The NHL Players' Association called the decision "shortsighted."

"Any sort of inconvenience the Olympics may cause to next season's schedule is a small price to pay compared to the opportunity to showcase our game and our greatest players on this enormous international stage," the NHLPA said in a statement. "The League's efforts to blame others for its decision is as unfortunate as the decision itself. NHL players are patriotic and they do not take this lightly.

"A decent respect for the opinions of the players matters. This is the NHL's decision, and its alone. It is very unfortunate for the game, the players and millions of loyal hockey fans."

The IOC said Tuesday it "feels very sorry for the athletes," but could not give the NHL special favors.

"The IOC, which distributes 90 percent of its revenue for the development of sport in the world, obviously cannot treat a national commercial league better than not-for-profit international sports federations which are developing sport globally," the Olympic body said in a statement.

Individual players also blasted the decision and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

"Disappointing news, @NHL won't be part of the Olympics 2018. A huge opportunity to market the game at the biggest stage is wasted," tweeted New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who won the 2006 Olympic gold medal with Sweden. "But most of all, disappointing for all the players that can't be part of the most special adventure in sports."

Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson called the decision "crap."

"I don't understand the decision. We have no say in the matter, it's very unfortunate for the game of hockey around the world that they're going to do this to the sport," Karlsson said. "I think it's going to hurt a lot if we don't end up going. Whoever made that decision obviously had no idea about what they're doing."

Former NHL forward Brandon Prust, who's now playing in Germany, tweeted: "Way to ruin the sport of hockey even more Gary #Olympics."

"Good to see the NHL and Gary Bettman always looking out for the good of the game," prominent agent Allan Walsh tweeted. "So much for that grand partnership with the players."

USA Hockey responded that the organization still plans to compete in South Korea.

"We knew it was a very real possibility for many months and certainly respect the decision of the NHL," executive director Dave Ogrean said in a statement. "The good news is that because of our grassroots efforts over the course of many years, our player pool is as deep as it has ever been and we fully expect to field a team that will play for a medal."

Hockey Canada president and CEO Tom Renney also issued a statement on Monday, saying that "today's statement by the NHL is not what we were hoping for because, ultimately, we want best-on-best at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games which, for us at Hockey Canada, includes the participation of NHL players."

He added that Hockey Canada had a "Plan A and a Plan B" and will move ahead with preparation for the Games.

What remains unknown is whether this decision precludes the NHL from returning to the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022.

"The IIHF is deeply disappointed to hear of Commissioner Bettman's decision not to have National Hockey League players take part in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games," said International Ice Hockey Federation president René Fasel.

"While we respect the NHL's reasons for not taking part, there is no hiding the fact that this is a decision that will rob ice hockey fans of what is without a doubt the top best-on-best international ice hockey competition we have been privileged to enjoy since 1998. At the end of the day, ice hockey loses here."

In light of the NHL's refusal to participate, Fasel said the IIHF will discuss with the participating teams the best way to move forward.

"We have to remember that some of the greatest Olympic moments didn't involve NHL players at all," said Fasel. "We will move forward and continue preparations for PyeongChang. We still have the task to promote and build our game in Asia, and we will work hard towards this."

The league's decision comes less than a week after NHL officials, including Bettman, visited Beijing to announce that two preseason games would be played in China by the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings next September.

The league believes that China represents a significant opportunity to grow the game globally, but the IOC recently warned that if the NHL did not take part in the South Korea Olympics, it could not necessarily count on taking part in the Beijing Games.

The NHL said that perceived threat also factored into its decision.

"A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized. Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL's participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018," the league said.

The league informed NHLPA executive director Don Fehr of the decision Monday.

The league said it had been hopeful that the players' desire to continue participating in the Olympics would lead to some sort of concessions, such as agreeing to see the current collective bargaining agreement through to its conclusion in 2022 instead of exercising an opt-out clause two years earlier. But the NHLPA's view was that the players should not have to make concessions to ensure that Olympic participation continued.

"Obviously the players are not about to engage in collective bargaining in return for getting an opportunity to go to the Olympics for which they aren't being paid, where very valuable things would go elsewhere in return for that," Fehr told ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun in a recent interview.

Some players, including Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, have said they would play in the Olympics regardless of whether the league was formally committed. "Yeah, I didn't change my mind," Ovechkin said Tuesday. "I'm still going."

The league did not address this issue in its release, but league officials have said they expect players to fulfill their contractual commitments to play with their respective clubs.

In December, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said he'd support Ovechkin playing in the Olympics if the NHL decided not to go.

"He knows I have his back on this one," Leonsis told ESPN.com in December. "If this is what's so important to him and he wants to go to the Olympics, he should be able to do that."

A source told ESPN's Craig Custance that the NHL told its teams on Monday in a memo not to say anything publicly about individual players going and that the league will deal with the situation.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.</s>NEW YORK (AP) NHL says it will not participate in 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.</s>NEW YORK — Officials with the National Hockey League announced Monday that they’re done trying to work with the International Olympics Committee to let players participate in the 2018 Winter Games.

The NHL released a statement about the controversial issue on Monday.

“…while the overwhelming majority of our Clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting the 2017-18 NHL season for purposes of accommodating Olympic participation by some NHL players, we were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue (e.g., the IOC, the IIHF, the NHLPA),” officials stated.

“A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized,” the statement continues. “Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL’s participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018.”

The statement goes on to say that the NHL will finalize the 2017-18 regular season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympics.

“We now consider the matter officially closed,” the statement ends.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman says that the owners have been against the 17-day break in the schedule in February because it’s a time that the NFL season has ended and MLB has yet to begin.

The NHL claims a survey found that in the United States, 73 percent said they were not in favor of the break. In Canada, it was 53 percent against the break.

Another reason for concern is player injury.

In the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, 4 players suffered season-ending injuries while playing in the Olympics.

But some players may decide to play in the Olympics anyway. ESPN reports that the players are “almost unanimously in favor of the NHL continuing its Olympic participation, and this decision will no doubt be greeted negatively by the players.”

ESPN reports that some players, such as Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, said they would play in the Olympics regardless of what the league decided.

An ESPN source says teams are not allowed to address whether individual players are going at this time.</s>In a statement released by the NHL on Monday, the league said that it is barring its players from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics. The 2018 Winter Games is the first time in more than two decades that the NHL has not allowed players to participate in the Olympics.

The NHL traditionally takes a two-week break during the Olympics to allow its top players to join various national teams.

A big reason for the NHL pulling out of the 2018 Winter Games is due to the location of the Olympics. Next year's Winter Games are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Although the NHL does not directly benefit from the Olympics, sending its top players has featured some of the most watched hockey games in television history. The 2010 Gold Medal match between the United States and Canada was the most-watched hockey game featuring professionals.

Without NHL players, it is unclear what direction the International Olympic Committee will take hockey in the Winter Games. Before Monday's announcement, some players have hinted they may defy the NHL and try to participate anyway. One of those players is Russian Alexander Ovechkin, who has already committed to playing in the 2018 Olympics.</s>No players from the NHL will participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, the NHL announced Monday afternoon. That ends a run of five consecutive Winter Olympics that featured NHL players.

Here is the full statement released by the NHL:

“We have previously made clear that while the overwhelming majority of our clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting the 2017-18 NHL season for purposes of accommodating Olympic participation by some NHL players, we were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue (e.g., the IOC, the IIHF, the NHLPA, etc.) as to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject. A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized. Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL’s participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018. And the NHLPA has now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the clubs. As a result, and in an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 regular season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games. We now consider the matter officially closed.”

The major reason for the decision stems from the fact that owners don’t like the nearly three-week disruption in the middle of the NHL season.</s>The National Hockey League will not participate in the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea next year, league officials announced Monday.

After months of negotiations with the International Olympic Committee, the league announced that because the overwhelming majority of its clubs are opposed to taking a break from the season to participate in the Games, the league will not release its players for the tournament. It will proceed with setting up next season’s schedules without a three-week break for the Games. “We now consider the matter officially closed,” the statement said.

The move is a major blow to the IOC and the NHL Players Association, whose members have long expressed a desire to participate in the Olympics. Representatives of the organizations were not immediately available to comment. The IOC has been struggling in recent years to convince cities to bid to host the Winter Games, and the NHL decision to forgo the Olympic spotlight is yet another sign of the declining vitality of the event.

NHL players have participated in every Winter Games since 1998, and teams have long complained that the exposure did not make up for the loss in income and the risk of losing its top players to injury. In an effort to pressure the NHL to allow its players to play in South Korea, where hockey is not popular, the IOC said if the league skipped next year’s Olympics it would not be allowed to participate in 2022 in Beijing, where the NHL is trying to gain a foothold.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

Buying a home this spring will be the hardest in years.</s>NHL players won't be hitting the ice at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

The league said Monday that it will not participate in the games because they disrupt the hockey season.

The statement said the majority of owners were "adamantly opposed" to having players leave the country to compete.

The move by the NHL comes after the International Olympic Committee changed its policy and said it would no longer reimburse the cost of travel and insurance for the hockey players -- something the organization has done for the last five Winter Olympics.

The International Ice Hockey Federation stepped up to cover the expenses, but the NHL worried that funding the Olympics would have meant cuts to grassroots programs and initiatives that help grow the sport. So that plan was scratched.

Related: US women's hockey team scores better pay, same benefits as men

The National Hockey League Players' Association put out a statement Monday night saying that "the players are extraordinarily disappointed and adamantly disagree with the NHL's shortsighted decision to not continue our participation in the Olympics."

The statement went on to say that the NHL was missing an opportunity to showcase the sport and players and to grow the game.

"The League's efforts to blame others for its decision is as unfortunate as the decision itself," the statement said. "NHL players are patriotic and they do not take this lightly. ... This is the NHL's decision, and its alone."

NHL players often go to the Olympics to represent their home countries, such as the U.S., Canada and Russia, even though they risk getting injured in the midst of the professional season. At the 2014 Sochi games, John Tavares sustained an injury that ended his season with the New York Islanders.

The Olympics will still feature hockey, but the roster will be made up of other players.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wanted the players to compete in the Olympics and reached out to the IOC, the IIHF and the NHL Players' Association to try to find a solution.

"A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized," a statement from the NHL said. "Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL's participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018."

The NHL's participation in the Olympics never really translated into a bigger fan base or more viewers. Plus, when the best players leave their teams mid-season, it can be upsetting for ticket holders who don't get to see them compete.

For NBC, which broadcasts the games, the loss of the NHL is a disappointment. It also means that NBC will miss out on a useful way to promote the NHL games it airs.

"The Olympics have long been the world's greatest international hockey tournament irrespective of whether professionals or amateurs are playing," an NBC Sports spokesperson said in a statement.</s>For the first time since 1994, NHL players will not attend the Winter Olympics.

The league has released a statement saying it “considers the matter officially closed.”

Negotiations between the league, the NHL Players’ Association and the International Olympic Committee have stalled in recent months.

In a statement, the NHL says it was open to hearing from the parties involved but that “no meaningful dialogue has materialized.”

The league says it will now proceed with finalizing the schedule for next season.

The NHL Players’ Association didn’t immediately respond to the league’s announcement.

The NHL had been at every Winter Olympics since 1998.</s>(AP) — South Korean Olympic organizers still hope to see NHL players competing at next year’s Winter Games despite the National Hockey League’s insistence it won’t happen.

Nancy Park, a spokeswoman for the Pyeongchang 2018 organizing committee, said Tuesday there’s still time for “meaningful discussions” on Olympic participation between the NHL, NHL Players’ Association, International Ice Hockey Federation and International Olympic Committee.

Park said the organizing committee is still hopeful that a “solution will be found for 2018.”

The NHL announced it will not participate in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, refusing for the first time in 20 years to halt its season for three weeks so its stars can chase gold for their home countries.

While the IIHF had agreed to pay for players’ travel and insurance costs when the IOC refused, the NHL had been looking for more concessions that were believed to be tied to marketing opportunities tied to the Games.

The NHLPA responded to the league’s announcement by saying players are “extraordinarily disappointed and adamantly disagree with the NHL’s shortsighted decision.”

Many players, including Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, have expressed a strong desire to compete. The NHL has not decided whether to allow teams to make decisions on a case-by-case basis about players participating in the 2018 Olympics.

Pyeongchang 2018 organizers have been concerned about the possibility of NHL players skipping next year’s Games as ice hockey has traditionally been a major ticket-seller during Winter Olympics.

South Korea has never been a powerhouse in the sport, but has qualified for the tournament as host and has started beefing up its ranks.</s>For the first time since 1994, NHL players will not attend the Winter Olympics.

The league released a statement Monday saying it “considers the matter officially closed” and that it won’t participate in the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Negotiations between the league, the NHL Players’ Association and the International Olympic Committee have stalled in recent months.

In the statement, the NHL said it was open to hearing from the parties involved but that “no meaningful dialogue has materialized.”

“Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL’s participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018,” the league said. “And the NHLPA has now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the clubs.”

The league said it will now proceed with finalizing the schedule for next season.

The NHL Players’ Association didn’t immediately respond to the league’s announcement.

The NHL had been at every Winter Olympics since 1998 and players have expressed their desire to continue participating.

It was just over a year ago at the Stanley Cup final in Pittsburgh that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman began pouring cold water on the idea of NHLers participating in 2018. In particular, Bettman was miffed that the International Olympic Committee was resisting payment on out-of-pocket costs for NHL players to attend — a subsidy that had been covered over the previous five Games.

Bettman said the cost was “many, many, many millions of dollars” and doubted that owners would pay for the “privilege of disrupting our season”.

Little had changed by early winter. Bettman continued to fume about money as well as the IOC’s unwillingness to let the NHL be associated with the Olympics in any fashion. The league couldn’t air highlights or promote their presence at the Games.

“It doesn’t give you the warm and fuzzies,” Bettman said at the PrimeTime Sports Management Conference.

A decision, he added, would likely be required by early January at the latest.

The NHL league then proposed an idea to the NHLPA that would extend the current collective bargaining agreement as a part of package for players to attend in 2018.

The union turned down the deal.

“So hopefully we’ll still be able to conclude an agreement to go to the Olympics,” executive director Donald Fehr said at the time. “We still think it’s important and we’ll go from there.”

But by early December, at the board of governors meetings in Florida, Bettman hinted at “fatigue” from the owners at going to the Games again. There were concerns, he said, about shutting down the season, what with the impact of a compressed schedule on players. The group also wasn’t convinced that there was any tangible benefit to the NHL being in South Korea. The Games had shown some impact when played in North America, but little beyond its shores.

“I think our constituents have become increasingly negative toward the Olympic experience,” deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

A few weeks later, Daly said the league had begun crafting two potential schedules for the 2017-18 season — one that included the NHL going to the Olympics and one that didn’t.

A month after that, at all-star weekend in Los Angeles, Bettman said a conversation among the board of governors as it pertained to the Olympics lasted all of 10 seconds. Nothing had changed from December when the views were strongly negative. Daly explained that the NHL was still waiting for some sort of game-changer to sway the owners, but didn’t know what that game-changer would be.

“All I can tell you is if we’re going to hear the same thing I don’t think it’s going to move the ball,” Daly said.

Players expressed hope that wouldn’t be the case.

Connor McDavid said “100 per cent” that NHL players should go. The Edmonton Oilers captain, who wasn’t even born the last time NHL players didn’t attend in 1994, said he couldn’t envision the Olympics without the world’s top players.

“I just feel like we’re misrepresenting our sport on a pretty huge scale and a pretty huge level,” Jonathan Toews, a long-time ace for Team Canada, added. “A lot of the talk has been it’s the players pushing for it, and it’s the players that are interested and want to go. I think the players do want to go, but I think it should be of interest to the players and the league. I think the NHL should be in the Olympics.”

The NHL, NHLPA, IOC and International Ice Hockey Federation all gathered for a hopeful meeting in early February, but by early March, Bettman said there was again nothing new to report. The owners were still unconvinced by the merits of players getting their wish to go to the Games.

Shortly thereafter Fehr hinted that players might be able to attend the Games whether the NHL gave the OK or not. He said the PA thought it was “very probably an individual club decision”, an avenue that might conceivably allow those like Alex Ovechkin to come to agreements on attending with their respective teams.

“The NHL knows what our position is,” Fehr said late last month. “They know we think it’s important. They know that we believe very strongly that players ought to have an opportunity to play. They know we think it’s in the long-run good for the game. And it’s something that we ought to try and do.”
The NHL announces that it will not release its players to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics.