When NHL players got the go-ahead to compete at the Olympics
In 1995, players for Canada's national team were unhappy to be shut out for 1998 Games
It was work that paid mainly in potential sporting glory, but some Canadians were upset to lose that work in 1995.
In 1995, the National Hockey League and its players' association, the NHLPA, signed an agreement with the International Ice Hockey Federation that would permit NHL players at the Olympics. A new NHL "dream team" would be on its way to the Nagano 1998 Winter Olympics. And the amateur players who'd been training for years were left on the bench.
"All these NHL players going taking our jobs," said Bryan Muir, a skater for Canada's national hockey team. He was taping his stick in the squad's Calgary dressing room when a CBC reporter interviewed him on Oct. 2, 1995.
"I was really looking forward to making ... the Olympic team," continued Muir. "And now I'm out of, say, a dream." Muir's road didn't end there, however. He went on to play for seven NHL teams, including the Edmonton Oilers.
Implications for Canadian hockey
Flash forward to today, and the story of NHL involvement in Olympic hockey is changing again. In December 2021, the NHL pulled its players from the approaching Winter Games in Beijing. They were to return to Olympic play in 2022 after keeping out of the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018.
Glenn Anderson, a former Oiler when CBC interviewed him for this report in 1995, was also practicing with the Canadian national team. He had played for Canada in the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid and was hoping to compete in the Games again to cap his career after retiring from the NHL.
However, Anderson thought an Olympic dream team of Canadian NHLers might do more harm than good for the game in Canada by taking opportunities for high-level play away from newer players.
"The game is moving south quicker than we think, and I think the notoriety in the States is becoming a lot more popular," Anderson said. "It's sad for the younger generation developing in Canada."
But Team Canada coach Tom Renney said the news was positive for the national team and that it meant Canada could focus on other tournaments beyond the Olympics.
"We can identify something on an annual basis, as opposed to a quadrennial," he said.
Canada's men's Olympic hockey team has included NHL players in five Games: in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. According to the Canadian Olympic Committee website, Canada won the gold medal in three of those games.
