IIHF president Rene Fasel says he needs NHL at future Winter Olympics
BUFFALO, N.Y. — The dust has settled on the NHL’s decision not to allow players to participate in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Now International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel has begun his push to have the best hockey players in the world at the 2022 Games in Beijing.
“To have the best-on-best in the Olympics, in Beijing, this is my mission to do it, to make this happen. The problem is with dollars,” Fasel said Thursday at a news conference ahead of the semifinals of the world junior hockey championship. “I have to. I have no choice. I have to for the hockey fans, for our game, we have to.
“We have to find the money somehow, some way.”
Fasel pointed to upcoming labour negotiations between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association as make-or-break for the Beijing Olympics. The current NHL labour deal expires in 2022, but it can be renegotiated in 2020 with the two sides tentatively scheduled to meet in September of that year.