Ugly Kevin Fiala injury highlights risk NHL takes at Olympics

The NHL's return to the Olympics has created a buzz within the sport and the Games themselves, making the men's tournament a must-see event for hockey fans. Pretty much every team here is an All-Star team of the league's top players taking part in a best-on-best tournament. 

It is the first time NHL players have participated since 2014, with the league skipping out on the 2018 and 2022 games. NHL players first appeared during the 1998 games in Nagano, Japan. 

While the tournament itself is thrilling fans and a source of pride for players, there is an enormous risk for the league with relatively little reward.

The risk: serious injury.

We saw that unfold late in Canada's 5-1 win over Switzerland on Friday when Swiss forward Kevin Fiala (Los Angeles Kings) had to be stretchered off the ice with a gruesome-looking leg injury.

Kevin Fiala injury a reminder of risk NHL takes in sending players to Olympics

Fiala was injured late in the game when he was involved in an awkward collision with Canada's Tom Wilson (Washington Capitals), resulting in the two players being tangled up and Fiala suffering an injury. He remained face down on the ice and had to be removed from the ice on a stretcher.

There is no immediate update on his status, but it figures to be the type of injury that is not only going to keep him out of the Olympics, but also sideline him a significant portion of the 2025-26 season when it resumes in two weeks. That would be a significant loss for a Kings team that is very much in the Stanley Cup Playoff race.

Fiala is one of their best players and entered the Olympic break second on the team in goals (18) and total points (40) in their first 56 games. 

This has to be the thing NHL teams dread when their players go to the Olympics.

It is a high-stress, highly competitive tournament in the middle of the NHL season. While injuries can happen at any time, and it does not really matter when or how they happen, it still has to feel extra worse for an organization when it happens away from its team. 

The NHL is not wrong to send its players to the Olympics, and players are not wrong to want to compete for their countries' flag. Olympic medals are rare, special things, and when given the opportunity to get one, players will go for it.

There is also the mindset that sending players to the Olympics can be a selling point for the sport and get more people interested in the NHL. 

The problem with that argument is there is nothing to suggest that actually happens. The NHL has never really seen any major boost from its previous trips to the Olympics. It is shutting its season down for three weeks, with no control over when games are broadcast or how they are seen, and with no ability to actually use the highlights to market their players.

Friday's Canada-Switzerland game, for example, was shown only on streaming services in the United States and not over network or cable television. The same was true for the highly anticipated Sweden-Finland game earlier in the day. The league also can't use any highlights from the games to market its players due to the broadcasting rights. There is also zero sign of that changing anytime soon. 

It is a situation where the NHL has very little to gain, a lot to potentially lose and is basically going through with it because the players want it so badly. And that is fine. But sometimes things like the Fiala injury will happen. It isn't anyone's fault. Nobody did anything wrong. It is just the risk that comes with the situation.