NHL players confirmed for 2022, 2026 Winter Olympics

Sidney Crosby #87 of Canada celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime in the ice hockey men's final game against Team USA in Winter Olympics at Canada Hockey Place in Vancouver, Canada, February 28, 2010. /VCG

Players from the National Hockey League (NHL) will attend the Winter Olympics in Beijing (2022) and Milan-Cortina (2026), the league announced on Saturday.

The NHL, NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) reached an agreement on this. There were in total 706 NHL players participating in the five Winter Olympics between 1998 and 2014 until the league skipped the one in PyeongChang in 2018 for economic reasons.

The majority of the teams did not like it when the league announced that decision in 2018, according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

Bo Horvat of the Vancouver Canucks skates with the puck in the game against the Carolina Hurricanes at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, December 12, 2019. /VCG

"Everybody wants to represent their country, everybody wants to play in the Olympics. I think that's a big thing that we wanted, not only for ourselves to represent our country, but to grow the game. I think this is great to negotiate that and be able to play in the Olympics coming up. It's great for hockey, it's great for the fans, and it's great for us as players to represent our countries, so we're excited about it," said Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat.

Canada has been one of the most successful teams in Olympic ice hockey tournament as they won nine gold medals and three of them came from the five Winter Olympics that had NHL players attend - 2002 in Salt Lake City, 2010 in Vancouver, 2014 in Sochi. By the way, Sweden and the Czech Republic won the title in Torino in 2006, and in Nagano in 1998 respectively.

By contrast, Team USA's Olympic record is awkward because the team won the most silver medals (eight) and the latest time happened in 2010. They only pocketed two men's ice hockey golds in history and the last time they did it was in 1980 in Lake Placid.

The absence of NHL players in PyeongChang two years ago weakened both Canada and Team USA, making athletes from Russia – which was banned from attending the 2018 Winter Olympics – the final winners.

China as the host is in Group A with Team USA, Canada and Germany in men's tournament. Having the opportunity to play against the world's top teams on the ice should be helpful for the Chinese national side, whatever the results.