Several NHL front office executives were frustrated with their lack of say in whether players battling injuries would be cleared to play for their home country in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reported Friday on the 32 Thoughts podcast that he spoke with an unnamed NHL general manager who relayed teams were essentially told it wasn't even worth trying to challenge a player's availability for the Milano Cortina Games.
"The managers and teams have kind of been told this is really important to the players. It was the number one thing in bargaining," Friedman said. "... This was a big bargaining topic for the players. So, basically in exchange, or to honor what the players fought for, teams were basically told unless a guy's really out, like say Jonas Brodin out or Brayden Point out, players were gonna be allowed to go. Teams were gonna have to suck this up."
The NHL insider explained there simply wasn't much recourse for front offices, even if a player was injured and unavailable last week before the league's three-week break for the Olympics began.
"They were told that if that was the case, they'd have to be prepared to lose that argument," Friedman said. "That's how big all of this is and was. So, I think everybody knew here that if they had a case, similar to the one Jack Hughes and Jersey had, the player has gonna be able to play and they'd better know how to deal with that."
Hughes missed the Devils' final three games before the NHL hiatus because of a lower-body injury, but he took the ice for Team USA in their 5-1 victory over Latvia on Thursday.
Buffalo Sabres' Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen was in a race against time before being removed from Finland's Olympic roster
Luukkonen, who was making a strong push to overtake the Nashville Predators' Juuse Saros as Finland's starting goaltender, suffered a lower-body injury before the Games.
What happened next was interesting.
The Sabres noted UPL wouldn't return before the break but tiptoed around whether he'd suit up for Suomi in the Olympics. Then, when it was confirmed the netminder would miss the trip to Italy, the decision was first announced by Team Finland via the NHL, not Buffalo.
Friedman's report clears up why the Sabres didn't want to make any definitive statements about whether Luukkonen would play for the Lions. They really didn't have much say in the matter.
There were a lot of factors for why the NHL decided to stop sending players to the Olympics for the past two Winter Games. Injuries, both in terms of stars wanting to fight through preexisting issues and new ailments popping up during the tournament, were a key concern.
Players want to represent their country in a best-on-best environment, though. And, as Friedman alluded, they were willing the make concessions in the most recent collective bargaining discussions in order to secure their guaranteed return to the Olympics.
In turn, the league knew the NHL Players' Association would fiercely challenge any attempt to block a player from making the trip, and thus it was a losing proposition for individual teams.
Although Luukkonen missed the 2026 Games, the Sabres are still being represented in Italy by Tage Thompson (Team USA) and Rasmus Dahlin (Sweden).
Looking ahead, Buffalo will hope the extra recovery time allows UPL to get back to full strength before the stretch run of the NHL regular season. He was playing his best hockey in years before the injury, posting a .916 save percentage over his last 11 games.
The Sabres return from the break Feb. 25 when they visit the Prudential Center to take on Hughes and the Devils.