Benched from Olympics

Photo: The Canadian Press

UPDATE: 3:35 p.m.

It appears the 2018 Winter Olympics will lack the star power of Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews after the NHL announced Monday it will not interrupt next season to accommodate the Pyeongchang Games.

Instead, hockey will likely be represented on the global stage by many players with unrecognizable names — think Brad Schlegel, David Harlock and Dwayne Norris from Canada's silver-medal winning team at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.

"Disappointing news @NHL won't be part of the Olympics 2018," New York Rangers goaltender and two-time Olympian Henrik Lundqvist said on Twitter. "A huge opportunity to market the game at the biggest stage is wasted."

It was the hope of superstars like McDavid, Jonathan Toews and Alex Ovechkin that the NHL would come around to the big picture appeal of the 2018 Games, but the league never found the answer it was looking for.

What exactly might have swayed their opinion toward letting players attend isn't clear. NHL owners never bought into the idea that shutting down the season for 17 days in February would benefit the league in the long run.

Their angst was most certainly sparked by the International Olympic Committee's insistence that out-of-pocket payments for players to attend in 2018 would no longer be covered.

"I think when the IOC said 'You know what, we don't think it's worth it we're not going to pay,' I think that may have opened a whole can of worms," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at one point in the process.

And from there, the owners dug in their heels and never moved — even when the International Ice Hockey Federation found apparent money to cover costs like travel, accommodation and insurance.

But it was beyond just dollars and limited growth potential from South Korea. Owners were wary of the season disruption and impact of a compressed schedule, along with increased risk for player injury.

Bettman said in March that "there's somewhere between fatigue and negativity on the subject.

In a statement announcing their decision, the NHL said "no meaningful dialogue has materialized," pointing fingers at both the IOC and NHL Players' Association.