BEIJING, July 21 -- NHL vice president David Proper said on Friday it is possible that NHL will not release player to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.

The NHL announced in April that it would not suspend its season to accommodate the Olympics in February, effectively meaning the league's top international stars have no chance to compete in the games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Proper, who showed up at a sports business meeting on Friday in Beijing, defended the NHL's decision, saying: "Our issue is we have to stop our season, and in order to do that there has to be a return that makes a lot of sense, and what we found is that at least with Korea it didn't feel like there is going to be a return to us in terms of the benefits going to the Olympics."

He did not rule out the possibility that the NHL could take the same action before the Beijing Winter Olympics.

"There is always a possibility, in my own personal view, we will make that analysis at a later date," he said.

"There are a lot of reasons to come to those Olympics but it still has to be balanced against stopping the season. It's there a return making sense," he said.

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