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Fehr: Players won’t negotiate with NHL over Olympics

NHLPA Member Meeting

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 13: Don Fehr, executive director of the National Hockey League Players Association meets with the media at the Marriott Marquis Times Square on September 13, 2012 in New York City. Joining him from left to right is Ruslan Fedotenko, Henrik Lundqvist, Zdeno Chara and Sidney Crosby. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

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If the NHL was hoping the players would surrender something for the right to go to the Olympics in 2018, the NHL should think again, according to NHLPA chief Donald Fehr.

“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 today.

It was reported back in November that the NHL had offered to go to the Olympics, in return for the players accepting a CBA extension.

Not long after, it was reported that the NHLPA had rejected the league’s offer.

Looking ahead, the NHL may still be holding out for another party to offer some concessions -- that party being the IOC.

“We don’t even get the opportunity to promote the fact that we’re at the Olympics,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said earlier this month, per FanSided. “We don’t get to use the rings. I’ve said to the IOC, you know, Coca-Cola is a sponsor, they get to promote their association and say ‘proud sponsor of the Olympics.’ They won’t let us do that…there’s no recognition of the value by the IOC and the IIHF that we bring to the Olympics.”

Read more: Bettman argues that Olympic participation hurts NHL product

Bettman’s latest Olympics update was not very positive.

“There are no negotiations ongoing,” he told Reuters earlier this week. “We were open to having discussions on a variety of things that might mitigate the damage to our season but that had no resonance. As things stand now people should assume we are not going.”