While the NHL has not yet committed to the 2018 Winter Olympics, Commissioner Gary Bettman said on Sunday that "being on a global stage was unquestionably a positive," according to Rick Horrow of REUTERS. The league has participated in each Winter Olympics since '98, but has "long believed it puts more into its Olympic investment than it gets in return, raising doubts over its decision" for next year's Games in PyeongChang. Bettman: "There's the worldwide stage that the Olympics provides except they don't promote NHL hockey. They take the players and run their own tournament. It's great to have the world's best-on-best play but, in the final analysis, the restrictions that the IOC imposes are difficult when you're in our situation, particularly where we are the only sports league or sport that has to stop its season to participate if we chose to participate." Asked for an "update on possible player involvement at the 2018 Olympics," Bettman said, "There's nothing new on that regard. It is incredibly disruptive. What business in the prime of its selling season shuts down for three weeks? It affects the competitiveness of the league, it affects the schedule not just for those three weeks but for the rest of the season with compression" (REUTERS, 1/29).
