(Reuters) – If National Hockey League players return to the Olympics next year, twice Stanley Cup champion Jon Cooper will serve as head coach of a Canadian men’s team that would be considered a gold medal favourite in Beijing, Hockey Canada said on Monday.
For Cooper, who won a second consecutive Stanley Cup as head coach of the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning last month, the potential role would mark his debut as coach of Canada’s Olympic team.
“It is an honour to be entrusted with leading Canada’s men’s Olympic team next year in Beijing, and to be able to carry on the rich tradition of hockey excellence that is associated with Hockey Canada,” Cooper said in a news release.
Cooper previously served as head coach of Canada at the 2017 world championship, winning a silver medal, and was an assistant coach with Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
The NHL has not yet decided whether its players will compete in the 2022 Beijing Olympics as it continues to deal with health questions regarding the coronavirus pandemic, including COVID-19-related insurance issues.
The NHL, unhappy over the prospect of interrupting a regular season to send its most valuable assets overseas where they could get hurt, ended a run of five consecutive Winter Olympics when it decided not to go to Pyeongchang in 2018.
That decision came despite clear signs from several of the world’s best players that they wanted to go.
Some NHL team owners have lost enthusiasm for the Olympics given the chance that players return injured or tired, thereby hurting their club’s chances in the push towards that year’s Stanley Cup playoffs.
But the NHL and players, as part of a extension to the collective bargaining agreement reached last year, agreed to return to the Olympics in 2022 and 2026 if deals were reached with the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation.
The Beijing Olympics are scheduled to run from Feb. 4-20 and the NHL’s schedule for the 2021-22 season includes a break in action to accommodate players who may participate.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto, editing by Ed Osmond)
