NHL will not participate in the 2018 Olympic Games

In their statement, they reiterate that "the majority of the Clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting the 2017-18 NHL season". However, "for purposes of accommodating Olympic participation by some NHL players, we were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue (e.g., the IOC, the IIHF, the NHLPA) as to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject".

In the end, however, the parties involved could not find a solution to the NHL's liking and the league thus decided not to take part in the 2018 Olympic Games. They now consider the "matter officially closed". 

Players like Roman Josi, Sven Andrighetto, Nino Niederreiter, Timo Meier, Kevin Fiala, Yannick Weber, and so on, will thus be unable to attend the Olympics, unless, of course, their owners allow them to go despite the league's decision not to interrupt their season to accommodate the Olympics. As Chris Johnson (Sportsnet) writes, however, the league has directed its teams to not discuss individual Olympic participations with their players as of now.

NHL Statement in its entirety: We have previously made clear that, while the overwhelming majority of our Clubs are adamantly opposed to disrupting the 2017-18 NHL season for purposes of accommodating Olympic participation by some NHL players, we were open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue (e.g., the IOC, the IIHF, the NHLPA) as to reasons the Board of Governors might be interested in re-evaluating their strongly held views on the subject. A number of months have now passed and no meaningful dialogue has materialized. Instead, the IOC has now expressed the position that the NHL’s participation in Beijing in 2022 is conditioned on our participation in South Korea in 2018.

And the NHLPA has now publicly confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the Clubs. As a result, and in an effort to create clarity among conflicting reports and erroneous speculation, this will confirm our intention to proceed with finalizing our 2017-18 Regular Season schedule without any break to accommodate the Olympic Winter Games. We now consider the matter officially closed.”

I'm told the NHL has directed teams not to discuss possibility of individual OLY participation with their players. League will rule later.

— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) April 3, 2017