Szymon Szemberg Quotations

Whether this will threaten NHL's Olympic participation, only the NHL can tell. The IIHF doesn't have any interest in playing out that card.

We really don't know about the ramifications of those two countries saying no to the proposed deal.

He's disappointed. He felt that those comments were out of place. He feels that they could potentially harm the integrity of the tournament.

Without this agreement, (the NHL) can really take any player it wants at any time without any compensation.

Everything between the IIHF and the NHL in the collective bargaining agreement would be void. There would be no NHL participation at the Olympics, at the world championships or a possible World Cup. There would be no transfer agreement.

The Russians are willing to discuss it further, so you have to be optimistic.

This is the biggest stage hockey has. We do not want game previews to be about tanking games. This is not our objective. This is definitely not the exposure we want.

The IIHF at this point only registers the 23. The rest is not our business right now. Theoretically the remaining players on each nation's Oct. 24 long list are all legitimate replacement players as far as the IIHF is concerned. Several nations have listed standby players and we do not register them unless any changes are made to the original 23.