If NHL balks on Olympics, we'll have been robbed of something special
Because a short-sighted NHL didn't go to Pyeongchang in 2018, we'll never get to see the greatest generation of players ever produced go head-to-head on the international stage
Perhaps Connor McDavid will still be a dominant player when he’s 29 years old. Four years from now, he might still possess the blinding foot and hand speed that makes him the world’s most dynamic player, one capable of making opposing defenders look as though they’re skating on his heated driveway. It’s possible, but not probable.
Which basically means that the NHL’s short sightedness and the COVID-19 pandemic have conspired to rob hockey fans around the world of seeing one of the greatest talents the game has ever produced on the biggest international stage. With a crush of COVID cases around the league, postponements on cross-border travel and both the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs pausing activities in the face of an aggressive Omicron variant, it’s becoming crystal clear that the NHL and NHL Players’ Association will abandon the notion of having their players participate in Beijing. The dream that once looked so promising is all but dead.
So, as we now cast our eyes to the 2026 Games in Milan and Cortina, we do so with the knowledge that, because the league will not have participated in successive Olympics, we will not see a truly epic generation of NHL talent at its best on the biggest stage in the world. We’ve almost certainly seen the last of the previous generation on that same stage as well. By the time the 2026 Games roll around, Sidney Crosby will be 38 and Alex Ovechkin will be 40. By that time, Ovechkin might be the league’s all-time leading goal scorer and in the last year of his current contract with the Washington Capitals, so it could actually serve as his final grand moment. Crosby’s current contract ends the season before and the way he plays the game, he might be held together with tape and skate laces by that time.
By the time the 2026 Games take place, Leon Draisaitl will be 30, Jack Eichel will be 29 and Auston Matthews will be 28. Johnny Gaudreau, who has never represented USA in the Olympics, will be 32. We should have seen them all in 2018 when they were younger and eager to continue the league’s legacy of playing in the Olympics, before the league decided it had grown weary of shutting down its operations for two weeks every four years and the NHLPA fell asleep at the wheel and neglected to have Olympic participation codified in the collective bargaining agreement. Think of players such as Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, who have accomplished everything there is to accomplish in the NHL, but will almost certainly have been robbed of the opportunity to play in the Olympics. Stamkos, who broke his leg just before the 2014 Games and couldn’t play and was making a convincing case to be on Team Canada in 2022, will be 36 in 2026. Hedman will be 35.
It’s a shame on so many levels. As we mentioned, four years from now there’s a good chance McDavid will still be a very good player in the NHL, probably still a star. And perhaps Matthews will still be challenging for Rocket Richard Trophies. (For which team, we don’t know, since he’s due to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2024.) But history tells us that most players are beyond the apex of their powers by that point in their careers. So the McDavid we see in 2026 will still be really good, maybe even great, but not as great as he would have been in 2022 and 2018. On the plus side, Trevor Zegras will be 24 years old and Cale Makar and Adam Fox will both be 28, which is more of an optimum age for defensemen than it is for forwards. The Hughes brothers could all get the opportunity to represent USA at the same time, since Quinn will be 26, Jack will be 24 and Luke will be 22. Heck, even Shane Wright will be 22 and Connor Bedard will be 20 by then.
By that time, there’s a very good chance that they will be the dominant players in the league, and they could be every bit as dynamic as the likes of McDavid, Draisaitl, Eichel and Gaudreau. But right now, that’s based solely on potential. We think those players can be generational talents, but we don’t know for sure whether they’ll be able to equal what the young stars of this age group are doing. There is no doubt, absolutely no doubt, that the NHL’s decision not to participate in 2018 and the circumstances brought on by COVID have deprived hockey fans of something very, very special.
All signs point to the NHL participating in 2026 as per the CBA. The league committed to 2022 and 2026, with the caveat that it could pull out of 2022 if COVID forced game cancellations. By then, it will have been 12 years since the NHL played in the Olympics and, given the league’s tepid desire to continue, it might be the last. The game has never been played at the dizzying levels it was in 2010, and there has never been a team assembled that was more dominant than Canada’s entry four years later. We’ll see what 2026 brings, but that certainly seems like a long, long way away right now.
Ken, the amount of money involved and the fact that the Lords of the IOC expect the NHL to bear the cost of this is what is the issue. While I agree that it would be great to see the NHL in Beijing, it ain't happening because of the way the world is currently. Sad but true.....