Brind'Amour shares idea for hockey at future Olympic Games that could benefit NHL

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Cooper Godin
October 20, 2023 (3:25 PM)

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We're over two years away from the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy where it's expected that the National Hockey League will send their players for the first time since 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

From 1998 to 2014, the National Hockey League sent their players to the Winter Olympics, but it meant they needed to shut down for three weeks, which caused a loss of revenue. Not only from a money standpoint, shutting down for three weeks also kills any momentum teams had built up until the players left to join up with their respective national teams.

Recently, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour sat down for an interview on the Clearing The Crease podcast and gave his idea for future Olympic participation.

When the idea of moving from the Winter Olympics to the Summer Olympics was brought up, Brind'Amour said that the reason why they haven't been able to do so in the past is because the host city of the Summer Games doesn't typically have a venue to hold hockey, to which he suggests having it in a separate city like Toronto.

"The argument I heard was they don't have the arenas in these places and this and that, but just, maybe you just make it always, when it's the Olympics, wherever it is, it's always in Toronto for the hockey thing. So, you miss out on that Olympic Village part as the Olympian, but man, for the spectators across the world, it's going on at this time and, you know, it would be great and the players would love it because if you did it right now, for example, in September, they're getting ready for camp anyway, so what do they miss? They miss their team's pre-season and stuff. Like, so what? You know, then you don't shut the season down. I think that's the problem with the league, I'm assuming, is you're shut down for three weeks. That doesn't really work very well." Brind'Amour said.

It would be interesting to see what the players think about this idea, but from a coaching standpoint, it's easy to see why Brind'Amour wants to see hockey at the Summer Olympics rather than the Winter Olympics.

For hockey fans, it might not be the same feeling as it does in February every four years, but it would be a great way to kick off the hockey season, especially if it's held in a city like Toronto or Montreal, or even in Europe like Stockholm, Helsinki or Prague.

Should the IOC, IIHF and NHL agree to move hockey from the Winter to the Summer Olympics? Share your thoughts with us in the poll below!

POLL
OCTOBRE 20 \| 74 ANSWERS Brind'Amour shares idea for hockey at future Olympic Games that could benefit NHL Should the IOC, IIHF and NHL agree to have hockey during the Summer Olympics?
Yes	24	32.4 %
No, keep it during the Winter Games	42	56.8 %
See Results	8	10.8 %
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