What we learned from the last week of play in the NHL:
Olympic picture still unsettled
To no one’s surprise, the NHL Players’ Assn. rejected the NHL’s proposal that the union agree to extend the current collective bargaining agreement by three years in exchange for the league’s support of players’ participation at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Players are unhappy with the current escrow provision and saw no reason to throw away an opt-out clause in 2019 and lock themselves into potentially big escrow payments through 2025.
But neither side has shut the door on an Olympic return, and Donald Fehr, the NHLPA’s executive director, is a big proponent of international play.