NHL announces league not going to 2018 Olympics in South Korea

— -- The National Hockey League announced Monday that it would not be sending its players to the Olympics in South Korea in 2018, ending months of debate over the issue of participation in Pyeongchang.

The league had been looking for conciliatory offers from the International Olympic Committee and/or the NHL Players' Association in order to placate an ownership group increasingly unhappy with the league shutting down for weeks to take part in the Olympic tournament every four years.

That didn't happen in recent weeks, and the league made good on its promise to resolve the matter before the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which begin April 13.

"In an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 Regular Season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games," the league said in a release distributed Monday afternoon.

"We now consider the matter officially closed."

The NHL Players' Association called the decision "shortsighted."

"Any sort of inconvenience the Olympics may cause to next season's schedule is a small price to pay compared to the opportunity to showcase our game and our greatest players on this enormous international stage," the NHLPA said in a statement. "The League's efforts to blame others for its decision is as unfortunate as the decision itself. NHL players are patriotic and they do not take this lightly.

"A decent respect for the opinions of the players matters. This is the NHL's decision, and its alone. It is very unfortunate for the game, the players and millions of loyal hockey fans."

The IOC said Tuesday it "feels very sorry for the athletes," but could not give the NHL special favors.

"The IOC, which distributes 90 percent of its revenue for the development of sport in the world, obviously cannot treat a national commercial league better than not-for-profit international sports federations which are developing sport globally," the Olympic body said in a statement.

Individual players also blasted the decision and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

"Disappointing news, @NHL won't be part of the Olympics 2018. A huge opportunity to market the game at the biggest stage is wasted," tweeted New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who won the 2006 Olympic gold medal with Sweden. "But most of all, disappointing for all the players that can't be part of the most special adventure in sports."

Ottawa Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson called the decision "crap."

"I don't understand the decision. We have no say in the matter, it's very unfortunate for the game of hockey around the world that they're going to do this to the sport," Karlsson said. "I think it's going to hurt a lot if we don't end up going. Whoever made that decision obviously had no idea about what they're doing."

Former NHL forward Brandon Prust, who's now playing in Germany, tweeted: "Way to ruin the sport of hockey even more Gary #Olympics."

"Good to see the NHL and Gary Bettman always looking out for the good of the game," prominent agent Allan Walsh tweeted. "So much for that grand partnership with the players."

USA Hockey responded that the organization still plans to compete in South Korea.

"We knew it was a very real possibility for many months and certainly respect the decision of the NHL," executive director Dave Ogrean said in a statement. "The good news is that because of our grassroots efforts over the course of many years, our player pool is as deep as it has ever been and we fully expect to field a team that will play for a medal."

Hockey Canada president and CEO Tom Renney also issued a statement on Monday, saying that "today's statement by the NHL is not what we were hoping for because, ultimately, we want best-on-best at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games which, for us at Hockey Canada, includes the participation of NHL players."

He added that Hockey Canada had a "Plan A and a Plan B" and will move ahead with preparation for the Games.

What remains unknown is whether this decision precludes the NHL from returning to the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022.

"The IIHF is deeply disappointed to hear of Commissioner Bettman's decision not to have National Hockey League players take part in the 2018 Olympic Winter Games," said International Ice Hockey Federation president Ren? Fasel.

"While we respect the NHL's reasons for not taking part, there is no hiding the fact that this is a decision that will rob ice hockey fans of what is without a doubt the top best-on-best international ice hockey competition we have been privileged to enjoy since 1998. At the end of the day, ice hockey loses here."

In light of the NHL's refusal to participate, Fasel said the IIHF will discuss with the participating teams the best way to move forward.

"We have to remember that some of the greatest Olympic moments didn't involve NHL players at all," said Fasel. "We will move forward and continue preparations for PyeongChang. We still have the task to promote and build our game in Asia, and we will work hard towards this."

The league's decision comes less than a week after NHL officials, including Bettman, visited Beijing to announce that two preseason games would be played in China by the Vancouver Canucks and the Los Angeles Kings next September.

The league believes that China represents a significant opportunity to grow the game globally, but the IOC recently warned that if the NHL did not take part in the South Korea Olympics, it could not necessarily count on taking part in the Beijing Games.

The NHL said that perceived threat also factored into its decision.

"A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized. Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL's participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018," the league said.

The league informed NHLPA executive director Don Fehr of the decision Monday.

The league said it had been hopeful that the players' desire to continue participating in the Olympics would lead to some sort of concessions, such as agreeing to see the current collective bargaining agreement through to its conclusion in 2022 instead of exercising an opt-out clause two years earlier. But the NHLPA's view was that the players should not have to make concessions to ensure that Olympic participation continued.

"Obviously the players are not about to engage in collective bargaining in return for getting an opportunity to go to the Olympics for which they aren't being paid, where very valuable things would go elsewhere in return for that," Fehr told ESPN.com's Pierre LeBrun in a recent interview.

Some players, including Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin, have said they would play in the Olympics regardless of whether the league was formally committed. "Yeah, I didn't change my mind," Ovechkin said Tuesday. "I'm still going."

The league did not address this issue in its release, but league officials have said they expect players to fulfill their contractual commitments to play with their respective clubs.

In December, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis said he'd support Ovechkin playing in the Olympics if the NHL decided not to go.

"He knows I have his back on this one," Leonsis told ESPN.com in December. "If this is what's so important to him and he wants to go to the Olympics, he should be able to do that."

A source told ESPN's Craig Custance that the NHL told its teams on Monday in a memo not to say anything publicly about individual players going and that the league will deal with the situation.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.