"We have very close communications with the International Hockey Federation,” Lee said.

"I haven’t met with leaders of NHL during the Games in Rio, but I have met the International Hockey Federation and we had detailed discussions. We will definitely trust and believe the NHL will join us at the Pyeongchang Games.”

René Fasel, President of the International Ice Hockey Federation and a member of the International Olympic Committee since 1995, has been energetic in persuading the NHL to participate in the Winter Olympics, something they have done since Nagano 1998. 

Before Sochi 2014, Fasel vowed to "work day and night" to negotiate the agreement to allow NHL players to participate – which they did, and Canada’s NHL stars helped them retain the title they had won on the home ice of Vancouver four years earlier.

The Sochi 2014 tournament took place against a backdrop of growing pressure from NHL owners to ban their players from the Olympics.

The owners cited the unwieldy two-week league-wide hiatus, revenue concerns, and the potential for serious injuries at the Olympics as reasons to keep their players from competing at Pyeongchang  2018.

New York Islanders captain John Tavares, one of Canada’s key players, suffered a torn cartilage during the quarter-final against Latvia which help him out of the NHL season.

More recently, however, there have been clear signs that the NHL has not ruled its players out of taking part in the Pyeongchang 2018 or Beijing 2022, given the potential to grow its market in Asia.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman told NHL.com in November 2015 that a decision on whether to take part in Pyeongchang 2018 could be announced within a year, and added that Beijing 2022 could be factored into the decision given the potential for marketing and growing the game in China.

"The question is would the fact that the Winter Olympics in Beijing introduce that country to hockey and give us an opportunity to make a real impression in China, where hockey is really in an embryonic state?" Commissioner Bettman said.

"That's a discussion we have to have to determine whether or not there is an opportunity to grow the game in China by using the Winter Games with NHL players as a catalyst.

"That's the question - I don't know the answer."

Neither Commissioner Bettman nor NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly would commit to a deadline for when a decision on future Olympic participation would be made, but neither disagreed with the suggestion that it could be taken during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, due to take place in Toronto from September 17 to October 1.

"As a practical matter there is a deadline on the Olympic decision, but it's not any time soon," Daly said.

"Certainly, the World Cup would fall within a window of time that we have available to us to make that decision.

"I'm not suggesting it will take that long, but I'm not suggesting it will be made before then either - we'll kind of see how that goes."

Bettman said the International IIHF wants the NHL to decide on 2022 at the same time it decides on 2018.

"Beijing alters the dynamic of the analysis, at least a little bit," Commissioner Bettman said.

"[If] it turns out to be like Nagano was [in 1998], and there was no aftereffect and no wake left behind, I'm not sure it [changes] the analysis at all."

The NHL has participated in the past five Winter Olympics, including two in Europe - Turin in 2006 and Sochi 2014 - and one in Asia at Nagano 1998.

"Two have been in North America -one in Salt Lake City [2002], one in Vancouver [2010] - and certainly our Olympic experiences as a League in those two Olympics happened to be more favorable than they were when the Olympics were far away," Daly said.

"The Commissioner was alluding to the fact that with Beijing being awarded the 2022 Games, it does change the equation a little bit for us. 

"Certainly, we view growth of our fan base and into markets where we might not have been before to be a priority for the League, and that may create opportunities to kind of build hockey's profile in Asia, which ultimately is a long-term goal of the League."