Bettman not looking to renegotiate, asked for Olympic hockey to be played in summer

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was a guest on Sportsnet's "Prime Time Sports" on Tuesday evening, and the hot topic of conversation was, of course, the league's decision to not attend the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Here are the major takeaways from the 18-minute interview:

• Bettman was clear in saying that the league's announcement Monday isn't some sort of posturing effort in order to get the NHL to the games. The clubs don't want to attend - period.
  • "We aren't looking for a negotiation," he said.
• Bettman reiterated that after taking part in five Olympics, the league no longer has interest in shutting down its season with no benefit of sending its players to the games.
  • "It's not like we didn't try to embrace the Olympics, but not only has it not done anything for our game, particularly here in North America, where our franchises play, it's been damaging to the seasons in terms of the competitiveness, in terms of the compression of the season, (and) injuries to players."
• The NHL, Bettman said, only had to ask itself one question: What's the point?
  • "If the IOC doesn't value our contributions, the fact that we lend players with contracts worth over $3 billion and shut down our season at a very important and prime time, when no other sports league would do it, why are we doing this?"
• Bettman cited the fact the league cannot promote itself at the games, and that the NHL has no access to signature moments like Sidney Crosby's golden goal in 2010, as one of its prime concerns over going.
• The commissioner also revealed the league asked for Olympic hockey to be played as part of the summer games.
  • "We made other suggestions. If the IOC would move the Olympics hockey tournament to the summer, that would be great, we'd be thrilled to have our players participate because then it doesn't affect our season. ... We asked to go to the summer and they said no, and why did they say no, because hockey in terms of hours of programming and the numbers of seats sold to the events is probably too important to the Winter Olympics and their economics. And so, again, nobody is suggesting anything to give the teams a reason to reconsider their position. And that's okay, because we know the clubs don't want to go and we weren't and aren't looking to renegotiate."