(ATR) NHL Players’ Association Executive Director Don Fehr tells Around the Rings he’s "cautiously optimistic" after the latest negotiations over NHL participation at Sochi 2014.
"Friday's discussion was constructive," he says in a statement emailed to ATR last week, referring to meetings of April 12.
"While there is a lot of work still to be done, I remain cautiously optimistic."
His comments follow a third round of talks among the NHL, NHLPA and International Ice Hockey Federation, this time at NHL offices in New York City.
Included in the discussions were Fehr, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, IIHF President Rene Fasel as well as Hockey Canada President and CEO Bob Nicholson, who is also an IIHF VP.
A spokesperson with the NHL told ATR that it was "still early" to comment on negotiations and that a statement is expected "as soon as logistics are settled."
The IOC would not comment on the ongoing negotiations, saying: "We understand that the NHL and IIHF haveheld positive and productive discussions and we are confident they will come to an appropriate conclusion."
Fasel said logistics have replaced player insurance as the biggest challenge.
"They would like to bring more people than only one guest per player, so we need more rooms, more tickets," he told NHL.com
"In 2010 it was a little bit different because the logistics were different. Also, Vancouver is different than Sochi -- the rooms, the hotels, the tickets, the size of the arena. So it makes it a little bit different. The arena in Sochi is not as big, so the ticket requests are not so easy. So we have to finalize that."
Efforts made by ATR to contact Fasel for additional comment were unsuccessful due to his attendance at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship in Sochi.
Fasel is trying to ensure NHL participation for the fifth straight Winter Games dating back to Nagano 1998.
Written by Matthew Grayson.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Recent Articles
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
