Coverage issues have added doubt to the ability of players from Canada to head to Sochi.
Hockey Canada has been dealing with a number of different issues in finalizing its plans to be able to send hockey players to the Olympic orientation camp in August 2013, but bad insurance news is continuing to stand in the way.
If the current situation doesn’t turn around, it may mean that the players won’t be able to skate after all.
The CEO of Hockey Canada, Bob Nicholson, has said that no decision has yet been made on whether or not the players will be able to go, but that the insurance news is “difficult” because of the cost of providing coverage for each of the NHL contracts.
Among all of the problems that have been faced, it is primarily the insurance news that still stands in the way.
Nicholson explained that this insurance news “is a big issue.” He went on to state that “We got some quotes yesterday that it would be over a million dollars to skate. So if it’s that type of dollars, it’d be very difficult for us to do that. But we’re just starting to look into that now with the agreement being done.”
Though the agreement for sending the NHL players to the Sochi, Russia Winter Olympics in 2014 provides coverage during the tournament, itself, the insurance news in this situation is that the individual federations must pay for covering the contracts during the orientation camps. It was Nicholson’s hope that Canada would be able to start its camp in Calgary on August 25. This would have been the same time that the American camp from USA Hockey, was scheduled to be practicing, as they are scheduled from August 25 to 29 at the Arlington, Virginia practice facility of the Washington Capitals, though a spokesperson has now confirmed that they will not be skating.
Nicholson believes that the insurance news announcements regarding to the invites to the Canadian camp, as well as the coaching staff will occur very soon. Though Canada has not yet shared the information regarding its coaching staff, Sochi preparations have been under way for quite a while.
