Boston Bruins winger Brad Marchand became one of the most prominent players to openly criticize the league's decision to opt out of the 2022 Beijing Olympics due to COVID-19 postponements.
Marchand tweeted a statement on Tuesday that questioned the logic behind the NHL and NHLPA agreeing to add taxi squads to supplement rosters that are missing players to the COVID protocols while refusing to do the same during the Olympics. Marchand believes this type of supplemental roster planning wasn't considered for the Olympics, and that they could have allowed players to leave for Beijing while NHL teams made up postponed games during what was intended to be an Olympic break.