The NHL announced what we all knew was coming: NHL players not heading to the 2022 Olympic Games.

Disappointing, of course, but the league never was going to put at risk their 82-game season. With COVID-19 running rampant through the NHL forcing players into quarantine, the league had no choice but to step up and protect their season.

Nonetheless, the NHL’s player association has already turned the page with their sights set on players attending the 2026 Olympics.

“Certainly, the players and hockey fans are quite disappointed,” NHLPA head Don Fehr said in a statement, “but playing a full 82-game season this year, something the pandemic has prevented us from doing since the 2018-19 season, is very important.

“We expect that NHL players will return to the Olympics in 2026.”

Fans have been clamouring for best-on-best tournaments for years. They were teased with the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, and I wouldn’t be surprised see the NHL push to host another in the coming years.