If the NHL’s labour impasse isn’t resolved by January, the league may not be able to participate in the Turin 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
Rene Fasel, head of the International Ice Hockey Federation, said it wasn’t his organization’s deadline and that he would welcome NHL players at any time before the Turin 2006 Games, but he said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman doesn’t want a break in the NHL’s 2005-06 schedule for the Olympics if the previous season was cancelled because of a lockout.
If there were no NHL participation Hockey Canada would restore its now-defunct men’s national team and have it play in a few international tournaments in the fall of 2005, leading up to the Olympics.
And if the NHL was not available for the 2006 Games, Fasel wants the NHL players back for the Vancouver 2010 Games.
He said, “it would be wrong for us to say ‘if you don’t come to Turin you can’t come to Vancouver’. That’s the wrong message”.
