When asked whether the return of the World Cup of Hockey meant the NHL might pull its players from future Olympic Games, league commissioner Bettman sounded optimistic, reminding the audience that most NHLers are eager to become Olympians. And that left it to Fehr, executive director of the NHL Players Association, to offer a sober take on the implications of pausing the league schedule mid-season. “The events are fundamentally different,” Fehr told an audience of business executives at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. “Shutting down a $4-billion business for several weeks is not the simplest thing in the world.”A skeptic could point out that eve of the World Cup of Hockey is the perfect time to stress the uncertainty of NHLers ever returning to the Winter Olympics. Their absence from the 2018 Games would make the World Cup, a joint venture between the league and its players union, the only chance to see an international hockey competition that pits the best against the best.

Source: thestar September 16, 2016 21:45 UTC