The NHL officially shut the door to NHL players playing in the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics with a statement to the public on Monday. It will be the first Olympiad the NHL will miss since it started sending its players in 1998 in Nagano, Japan.
“We now consider the matter officially closed,” the final sentence of the official statement from the league office read.
In reality, the matter was always closed in the eyes of the Owners. They claim that they had solicited arguments from the IOC, IIHF, and the NHLPA to argue their case for participating, but the League was always set on withdrawing participation.