from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail,

NHL Players’ Association executive director Donald Fehr told a Toronto radio station on Wednesday that his constituency had long memories, saying the Olympic dispute could colour negotiations when the two sides revisit the labour deal, known as the CBA, as early as 2019.

“If the notion is that players will just say, ‘oh well, the CBA didn’t provide for it’ or ‘we wish it were different’ – and we could just go on with life as usual or as if this hadn’t happened, I think that’s a very, very, very unlikely possibility,” Mr. Fehr told Sportsnet The Fan 590.

At the heart of the dispute is the NHL’s unwillingness to go to Pyeongchang for what are largely business reasons – a disruption to its schedule, the risk of injury to top players, an unattractive time zone and the inability to leverage broadcast and marketing opportunities that come from having the NHL at the Olympics.

The NHL players’ collective desire to representative their countries at the international competition, meanwhile, is more sentimental.

“Guys love representing their country on [the Olympic] stage and it is a bitter pill to swallow for sure,” the Toronto Maple Leafs’ U.S.-born forward James van Riemsdyk told reporters Tuesday. “As players, we have shown we want to be there and made that very clear, but this decision was made outside of us.”

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from Morgan Campbell of the Toronto Star,