NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told Reutersnews agency on Tuesday that he doubts the NHL will go to the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Bettman stated that going so far away would put pressure on the players, the schedule and the fans.
It appears to us that Bettman is using the Olympics as a bargaining chip in an effort to get the Russians to agree to a player transfer agreement between the Russian Hockey Federation and the NHL. The lack of an agreement, which would give both sides an agreed upon amount when a player leaves Russia to play in the NHL, has halted the Russian pipeline to a trickle. The Russians are the only country in Europe that has not signed an agreement with the National Hockey League and it is preventing some stars such as Alexei Cherepanov (who should have been a top five pick in the 2007 Entry Draft and fell to 17th, one reason being the uncertainty of a transfer agreement) from entering the NHL.
It will be interesting to see how quickly the NHL agrees to go to the 2014 Olympics once a transfer agreement is in place with the Russians.