Fehr 'more optimistic' about 2018 Olympic participation

Donald Fehr's taking a positive approach to open the new year.

The NHLPA's executive director is feeling positive about NHLers heading to South Korea for the 2018 Olympic Games, despite what NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's been saying.

"I'm more optimistic now than I have ever been, at least as far as we're concerned, that we'll be able to reach an appropriate agreement with the IIHF to allow for the players to go," Fehr said Sunday, ESPN's Pierre LeBrun reports. "So I assume there will be further discussions over the course of the next several weeks and I choose to be optimistic on this one. We'll see."

Bettman said Sunday that nothing's changed on the league's front, and that clubs aren't expressing much desire to send NHLers.

While a decision is expected to come at some point in January, Bettman isn't feeling any pressure.

"We're not the ones who are setting the deadline on the clock," he said. "Others seem to be doing it."

Fehr added that instead of a one-off with respect to 2018, the league and players can come to some sort of international hockey agreement that would live outside the collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHLPA.