NHL players will be allowed to participate in the ice hockey event at the coming Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 after an agreement was reached between the league, the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The 2022 Winter Games will take place between February 4 and 20, 2022. The NHL will schedule games between February 3 and 22. Meanwhile, the NHL All-Star Weekend will still be held starting February 4 in Las Vegas. Players who attend the All-Star event will leave from Vegas directly for Beijing.

The IIHF and the IOC will shoulder the travel and insurance costs of NHL players. If players are allowed to have guests in attendance at the Games, the two agencies will cover their cost as well. Nonetheless, players can also opt for COVID-19 insurance, which they'll have to pay for from their own pocket.

It remains unknown whether athletes will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before attending the Winter Olympics. China has announced it will offer jabs to athletes for the Games. According to ESPN, "an overwhelming majority" of NHL players have already been inoculated.

Olympian teams must submit their "long lists" of players by October 15 and provisional rosters will be announced by January 2022.

NHL players have attended five straight editions Winter Olympics from 1998 in Nagano, Japan, to 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Their absence from PyeongChang in 2018 was an incentive for many players to compete on behalf of their national teams even more.

"As any Canadian kid, your dream is to play in the NHL, and then your dream is to play for Team Canada at the Olympics. I think that's always how it is, and I'm no different. Obviously, with not going to the Olympics, it's been a long time since we've been able to represent our country at a best-on-best tournament. So, my last time would have been a world juniors (in 2015), so it's been a long time, and I'm certainly looking forward to, I guess, having the ability to chase down a spot and hopefully make the team and represent my country at the Olympics," said Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers.

NHL players have worked together to secure their participation at the Winter Olympics and added the language allowing them to do so for the 2022 and 2026 editions in the new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which they they signed in 2020.

One opt-out clause was included in the agreement between the NHL, NHLPA and the IIHF, IOC: If COVID-19 conditions worsen or the league needs to make up games for disrupted 2021-22 season due to cancellations, the NHL and NHLPA can pull out from the Winter Games. The deadline for opt-out will be early January, according to ESPN.