The National Hockey League will not send its players to compete in the men's ice hockey tournament at the Beijing Winter Olympics due to COVID-19 concerns as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads globally, ESPN reported on Tuesday.
The NHL agreed last September to pause its regular season so the world's top players could compete in Beijing with the caveat it could withdraw if COVID-19 disruptions forced games to be rescheduled during the Olympics window.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in early December that the decision on participating in Beijing would ultimately come down to the players, but added that the league's concerns had "only been magnified" by the COVID-19 outbreak. The presence of NHL players at the Olympics made the men's ice hockey tournament one of the marquee events of the global sporting showcase.For Canada and the United States, which would have sent teams stocked completely with NHL players, that will mean a top to bottom overhaul cobbling together a roster from other leagues.