2022 Winter Olympics - Everything you need to know about the men's Olympic hockey field

For the second straight Winter Olympics, the National Hockey League dashed hopes for a «best on best» men's ice hockey tournament.

The NHL opted out of the 2018 Pyeongchang Games because of a funding dispute with the IOC. That upset the players, who negotiated participation in the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics in their latest collective bargaining agreement. But the league added a caveat to the Beijing Games decision: If there was a material interruption in the 2021-22 regular-season schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it could opt out of the Olympics again.

The omicron variant arrived and over 100 NHL games were postponed. Thus, the NHL decided to use the Olympic break to make up those games and the players were prohibited from participating again.

What does that mean for the 2022 tournament? Here's a look at the field and some familiar names that are still participating in the Olympics, as the men's preliminary round began Wednesday in Beijing.

Keep in mind that after the preliminary round, the teams are ranked 1 through 12. The top team of each group and the best second-ranked team will advance to the quarterfinals. Everyone else must play in a qualification round.

Canada

2018 finish: Defeated the Czech Republic 6-4 for the bronze, medaling for the third straight Olympics. Of course, the other two were gold medals, which reveals the subtle difference between Canada with and without NHL players on its roster.

Names you might know: Captain Eric Staal, a veteran of 1,293 games and 441 goals in the NHL. The 37-year-old made a Stanley Cup Final run with Montreal last postseason, found no takers as a free agent and decided to chase a second gold medal after winning one in 2010; forward Daniel Winnik, who played 798 games