NHL officially out of 2018 Olympics

[chippa13 1844]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl-will-not-participate-in-2018-pyeongchang-olympics-1.714038

This decision doesn't surprise me in the least.

 

[IPv6Freely 2094]

Would have liked to see them there, but not even remotely surprised. 

[DarkStar50 679]

The old "league gets nothing" point is a bit of bs on the league's part. The league doesn't need the money and the league gets exposure through the players.  Just remember Gold medal games in Salt Lake City and Vancouver, plus TJ Oshie's shootouts and then try the league doesn't get anything out of the Olympics argument again. There are some big holes there. End of the day it's the same as what we say about travel hockey: it's just a big money grab. There wasn't any $$$ for the NHL to grab so they took their puck and went home. Shameful. Remember, still a lot of pride for guys like OV and Sid and the young guns, McJesus and Matthews:34, first testament. And how great would it be to see Father Time of hockey, Jagr once more on the Olympic sheet. So, fuck the owners and fuck Bettman. As always the fans and hockey get fucked in the end.

[IPv6Freely 2094]

To be fair, there's not a chance in the world I would have gotten up in the middle of the night to watch any games, minus Canada's gold medal game, so I honestly don't care all that much. I mostly just feel bad for the list in the above post (though I've never heard some of those nicknames) not getting their chance.

[Hills 713]

I hate this decision, but I like international hockey better than NHL and I think winning a gold medal at the Olympics is a bigger accomplishment than a Stanely Cup.

The truly unfortunate thing about this is how it will take away an opportunity for the young kids to win a medal, and it doesn't help fuel the rivalries of Matthews & Eichel/McDavid/Laine. The other unfortunate thing is the lack of NHL players hurts the smaller countries like Slovenia, who last Olympics won their first ever Olympic game by being carried by Kopitar. It would be amazing if a few RFAs/UFAs decided not to sign in the NHL for next year so they could play... but I can't see that happening. 

[Vet88 674]

Whilst the "league gets nothing" part is pushed, they conveniently leave out what the league gets in return. By sending players into what will be one of the biggest events in the Asian market they get indirect exposure. Fans come on board after watching players like Crosby, McDavid et al. Merchandise is purchased, household names generated. And players will want to go as player profiles get enhanced into what is becoming one of the biggest markets for growth. Hence I thought there was a chance they might go, especially if it protected their chance to also go in 2022 (by saying no now means the IOC may tell them to piss off come 2022 which would harm the NHL's push into China).

But on the other side of the coin (pardon the pun) it's all about the money, not the players and whether or not fans would get up in the middle of the night to watch it. As a club owner would you be interested in sending some of your most important players to the Olympics at a critical time of the season? Just think about Tavares and when he got injured and what that meant for the Islanders chances. And the long term plan may be to target the World Cup as the premier hockey event. The scheduling for the World Cup would better suit the NHL and they will get more revenue out of the World Cup as the IOC tightly controls the purse strings for the olympics. Possibly they will try to angle olympic participation much like what football has done, make the olympics an under age participation (eg U23). This way the youth gets to go but the majority of the established stars stay safe at home, it's keeping those stars who want to go (eg Ovechkin) satisfied that is going to be a big headache for them.

[Hills 713]

2 minutes ago, Vet88 said:

Whilst the "league gets nothing" part is pushed, they conveniently leave out what the league gets in return. By sending players into what will be one of the biggest events in the Asian market they get indirect exposure. Fans come on board after watching players like Crosby, McDavid et al. Merchandise is purchased, household names generated. And players will want to go as player profiles get enhanced into what is becoming one of the biggest markets for growth. Hence I thought there was a chance they might go, especially if it protected their chance to also go in 2022 (by saying no now means the IOC may tell them to piss off come 2022 which would harm the NHL's push into China).

But on the other side of the coin (pardon the pun) it's all about the money, not the players and whether or not fans would get up in the middle of the night to watch it. As a club owner would you be interested in sending some of your most important players to the Olympics at a critical time of the season? Just think about Tavares and when he got injured and what that meant for the Islanders chances. And the long term plan may be to target the World Cup as the premier hockey event. The scheduling for the World Cup would better suit the NHL and they will get more revenue out of the World Cup as the IOC tightly controls the purse strings for the olympics. Possibly they will try to angle olympic participation much like what football has done, make the olympics an under age participation (eg U23). This way the youth gets to go but the majority of the established stars stay safe at home, it's keeping those stars who want to go (eg Ovechkin) satisfied that is going to be a big headache for them.

A few friends of mine can't stand NHL hockey. But they love Olympic hockey and were asking me about TJ Sochi last time. They don't care about the NHL or WCH.

Also the bolded part is hilarious since the owners have no problem sending the players to a meaningless exhibition tournament right before the season where players have just as big of risk of getting injured (if not bigger since it is coming off of summer break).

[chippa13 1844]

The "meaningless tournament" generated a lot more buzz than 4 AM games would in 2018. Then there is the compressed schedule with the 2 week shutdown after just having a compressed season that many players, coaches and GMs aren't happy about. The Olympics are a momentum killer for players and fans alike. The only way I'd be in favor of sending NHLers would be if they played in the off-season but that won't happen.

[IPv6Freely 2094]

I wonder how many players will now be bailing on the worlds next time as an FU to the NHL

[Vet88 674]

5 hours ago, Hills said:

Also the bolded part is hilarious since the owners have no problem sending the players to a meaningless exhibition tournament right before the season where players have just as big of risk of getting injured (if not bigger since it is coming off of summer break).

I rate this sightly differently at the start of the season. An injury then means the odds of the player gone for the rest of the season are much more remote. And for the owners I'd say their return on their players attending the WCH would be well balanced against the risk. I read somewhere a while ago that for a team to make the Stanley Cup play offs its worth an injection of up to $60 million (depending on how deep they go). 

[clarkiestooth 235]

Personally, the Olympic hockey event lost its luster when when the Russians/Swedes/Czechs/Fins started pouring into the NHL. It was no longer special.

That being said, I guarantee the NHL will be at the 2018 Olympics in S. Korea. This is the way Bettman negotiates. Always.  The NHL business plan is set on China. No way they disrupt that agenda.

[Kgbeast 195]

It might be all about the money here in the USA, for players from many other countries, it is not. So while this could be ok for USA players, it puts some others in pretty uncomfortable position. I wonder what ways they will explore to get to the Olympics.

[chippa13 1844]

3 hours ago, Kgbeast said:

It might be all about the money here in the USA, for players from many other countries, it is not. So while this could be ok for USA players, it puts some others in pretty uncomfortable position. I wonder what ways they will explore to get to the Olympics.

The first sentence doesn't even warrant being disproved but just know it is wrong.

[Hills 713]

12 hours ago, chippa13 said:

The "meaningless tournament" generated a lot more buzz than 4 AM games would in 2018. Then there is the compressed schedule with the 2 week shutdown after just having a compressed season that many players, coaches and GMs aren't happy about. The Olympics are a momentum killer for players and fans alike. The only way I'd be in favor of sending NHLers would be if they played in the off-season but that won't happen.

It didn't here. No one cared it was going on, no one took off work or had work parties to watch any of the games. People showed up to regular beer league hockey when team Canada was on. All of those things happen during the Olympics, none of it happened for the WCH.

[chippa13 1844]

Olympic hockey being a big deal in Canada does nothing for the NHL because, guess what, hockey is already a big deal in Canada. The NHL doesn't see shutting down for 2 weeks while their best players compete at hours the casual sports fan won't be tuning in as worth it.

[IPv6Freely 2094]

Looks like Ovie will be there. 

http://www.tsn.ca/ovechkin-on-2018-games-i-m-still-going-1.714839 

[chippa13 1844]

That could have consequences for the team. Remember, back in '02 the NHL wouldn't let teams release players early for the pre-tournament and threatened action against some teams and/or players.

http://www.espn.com/olympics/winter02/hockey/story?id=1329323

 

[marka 526]

Howdy,

One article I read said that in addition to the NHL owners needing to shut down mid season and risk injury to super start players, they'd also have had to pay travel and insurance costs for them to attend?

http://www.pensburgh.com/2017/4/3/15167348/nhl-staying-out-of-2018-olympics-but-will-top-players-like-crosby-and

Is that right?  Not hard to imagine a business owner thinking that's the final straw, if so.

Mark

[Kgbeast 195]

2 hours ago, chippa13 said:

The first sentence doesn't even warrant being disproved but just know it is wrong.

...Just reiterating the feel of the NHL in the article.

[chippa13 1844]

Owners maybe, but not the American players. They all grew up with the history of the Miracle on Ice and would love a chance at that. 

[Vet88 674]

3 hours ago, marka said:

Howdy,

One article I read said that in addition to the NHL owners needing to shut down mid season and risk injury to super start players, they'd also have had to pay travel and insurance costs for them to attend?

http://www.pensburgh.com/2017/4/3/15167348/nhl-staying-out-of-2018-olympics-but-will-top-players-like-crosby-and

Is that right?  Not hard to imagine a business owner thinking that's the final straw, if so.

Mark

It was a reason but just recently the IIHF offered travel and insurance costs at the same level as the last olympics. 

[Vet88 674]

3 hours ago, Kgbeast said:

...Just reiterating the feel of the NHL in the article.

NHPLA and others have come out saying how disappointed they are in the decision.

[Machinehead2k5 32]

NHLPA strike coming next season start? And aren't the Kings and I forgot who else, are playing games in China next year? I could see the NHLPA boycotting playing overseas as well for regular season games.

[marka 526]

Howdy,

16 hours ago, Vet88 said:

It was a reason but just recently the IIHF offered travel and insurance costs at the same level as the last olympics. 

Yeah, I saw that later.  This seemed to have a fairly complete story:

http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/19070122/nhl-comes-participating-winter-olympics-nhl-telling-ioc-nhlpa-take-hike-refreshing

Frankly, it seems like the IOC, the NHL, and the NHLPA all get to share in the failure since none of them seem to really want to give up anything.  It looks like it was only the IIHF was the only group willing to try and make the situation better.

 

I don't get how the NHLPA can say "Why should we have to give up anything?" and at the same time say "We really want to be able to participate in the Olympics"... That seems like a direct answer to the first question?

Mark

[Hills 713]

4 minutes ago, marka said:

Howdy,

Yeah, I saw that later.  This seemed to have a fairly complete story:

http://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/19070122/nhl-comes-participating-winter-olympics-nhl-telling-ioc-nhlpa-take-hike-refreshing

Frankly, it seems like the IOC, the NHL, and the NHLPA all get to share in the failure since none of them seem to really want to give up anything.  It looks like it was only the IIHF was the only group willing to try and make the situation better.

 

I don't get how the NHLPA can say "Why should we have to give up anything?" and at the same time say "We really want to be able to participate in the Olympics"... That seems like a direct answer to the first question?

Mark

The reason the NHL wants to extend the CBA is because the players are currently getting screwed with Escrow and revenue sharing. They had 15% of their salaries put into escrow in 2014-15 and got 2.05% back from that. TSN had a breakdown of this revenue that can be seen below. From 2009-10 season to 2014-15 season the players have lost the following percentage of salary to escrow to balance the 50/50 revenue sharing: 1.1%, 2.4%, 0.5%, 14.7%, 10.2%, 12.95%. There are no numbers that I can find for 2015-16 season yet but the withheld amount was the highest ever at 17%.

http://www.tsn.ca/talent/nhl-players-set-aside-15-5-of-salary-in-early-escrow-1.590263

The players took a significant pay cut and risk just signing the CBA, there is no reason for them to give up anything more to go to the Olympics. The NHL would set a target, it was met and then the NHL moved the goal posts. The reason they wanted to extend the CBA is because the current one is ridiculously titled on the owners side.

The argument of shutting down the season and losing 2 weeks of hockey is legitimate but they never lose the actual games, the season isn't shortened in terms of number of games rather just a compressed schedule. Does the break affect interest and demand to go to games? I can't answer that but I am sure the NHL can pull some specially calculated numbers up to prove how much money they lose when they do this, and I am sure a different statistician/accountant could pull some other numbers up to show it increases demand. Not to mention a lot of the owners own the rink that the teams are in, so they are still free to book other events with the 2 week of stoppage. But let's be real, it isn't about losing 2 weeks of revenue since the league is happy to lose half a season of revenue in locking out the players. Yes they ended up getting more out of it since the CBA is owner sided, but they 2 weeks of stoppage is nothing to them.

The World Cup of Hockey reportedly generated about $60 Million, which is split 50/50 between players and owners. Which means the owners got approximately $30 Million from the irrelevant exhibition tournament (irrelevant since the 2nd place team isn't a country...). Shouldn't that cover the cost of the Olympics?