article: NHL Says Any Player Under Active Contract Cannot Participate in 2018 Olympics

[SaveByRichter35]

http://nationalpost.com/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-players-under-contract-in-minors-cant-go-to-olympics/wcm/f7b17ba3-f948-4873-8b80-f27025f3a088

 

Such a ruling means even AHL players on two-way deals will be prevented from playing in South Korea in February.

 

Players with NHL contracts, even those in the minors, will not be allowed to participate in the Winter Olympics next February.

 

 

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed the league?s stance to The Associated Press on Monday. The league announced in April it wouldn?t be stopping its season to go to the Olympics for the first time since 1994, but questions had remained about players in the American Hockey League and ECHL.

 

 

?A decision has been made that all players under NHL contract will be subject to similar treatment,? Daly said.

 

 

This means players signed to two-way NHL contracts or who are loaned to minor league affiliates by their clubs won?t be available to the United States, Canada or other national teams. The AHL said earlier this summer that general managers could decide to allow players on AHL contracts to play in South Korea.

 

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[Phil]

This isn't surprising. If NHL players can't go, this is their way of making sure teams don't get cute by sending players to the AHL just so they can bail out for their Olympic team.

 

If the NHL isn't participating, then NHL players aren't participating. That means anyone with an NHL contract.

[SaveByRichter35]

Yea I don't think many teams would be doing that anyway. I don't see us, for example, sending Hank Mac Zuc and Shattenkirk down to Hartford so they could play for their respective countries. You're right though, its just a check in the box.

[Dunny]

At least we'll always have Team Yung Gunz.