When the NHL announced that its players would not be participating in the 2022 Olympics last Wednesday, we knew that there would be more dominoes that would begin to fall.
The next of these dominoes fell on Monday, when USA Hockey announced that the organization's assistant executive director of hockey ops, John Vanbiesbrouck, would be taking Bill Guerin’s place as general manager of the men’s Olympic team. USA Hockey also announced that David Quinn will take Mike Sullivan’s place as the team’s head coach.
Quinn was previously set to serve as an assistant coach on Sullivan’s staff, having spent most of the past several months in a scouting capacity.
The Olympics are currently scheduled to run from Feb. 4-20 in Beijing. However, as concerns surrounding the Omicron variant increase, everything is subject to change.
Also subject to change is “who” will be playing for Team USA, which is a subject that Daily Faceoff’s Chris Peters recently explored.
Neither USA Hockey nor any other country whose roster would’ve been primarily composed of NHL players has made any official statements on their roster plans.
U18 Women’s World Championship still a possibility?
The IIHF’s decision to cancel the all of its events that were scheduled to start in January has been widely scrutinized over the past week. The decision, which primarily resulted in the cancellation of the U18 Women’s World Championship — originally scheduled to be held from Jan. 8-15 in Linköping and Mjölby, Sweden — for the second straight year while men’s events have largely not been impacted, has raised questions about possible bias within the IIHF.
This criticism grew on Monday, when the venue in Linköping, where part of the event would’ve been held was seen successfully hosting a men’s game.
Among the many critics of the IIHF’s decision has been Kendall Coyne Schofield, who herself has played in several tournaments for the U.S. Women’s National Team dating back to when she was 17.
“The @IIHFHockey has prioritized/held top division mens events during the pandemic but the top division womens events – cancelled again,” Coyne Schofield tweeted. “UNACCEPTABLE. Figure out how to safely play the U18 Worlds this season, just like the U18 men & #WorldJuniors. These players DESERVE to play too.”
Drake Batherson of the Ottawa Senators shared his displeasure in the IIHF’s decision on Monday, joining a growing number of NHL players who have been vocal.
On Monday, USA Hockey Executive Director Pat Kelleher said that USA Hockey has asked the IIHF to reconsider the cancellation of the event.
“We do think it’s a critical event for the future of women’s hockey,” Kelleher said.
The IIHF has yet to share a response.
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