Ice hockey at the 2018 Winter Olympics

Ice hockey at the XXIII Olympic Winter Games
Venues	Gangneung Hockey Centre Kwandong Hockey Centre
Dates	10–25 February 2018
No. of events	2
← 2014 2022 →

The ice hockey competitions of the 2018 Winter Olympics will be played at two venues within the Gangneung Coastal Cluster in Pyeongchang, Korea. The Gangneung Hockey Centre, which will seat 10,000, and the Kwandong Hockey Centre, which will seat 6,000, both were originally scheduled to be completed in 2016 and appear to have been completed in early 2017. Both venues contain international-sized rinks (60 meters by 30 meters).

Twelve teams will compete in the men's tournament, which will be held from 13 to 25 February. Eight teams will compete in the women's tournament, from 10 to 22 February.

The tournament will feature 12 countries, 8 qualifying through the IIHF World Ranking, 3 through subsequent qualifying tournaments, and the host South Korea men's national ice hockey team. The format will be the same as 2010 and 2014; three groups of 4 will compete in three games to determine seeding, each playing every other team in their group, followed by four rounds of elimination games. Each group winner receives a bye into the second round, along with the highest ranked of the remaining teams. The remaining eight teams will play an eliminating qualification game to advance to the quarter-final round. Each quarter-final winner will advance to the semi-finals with the winners playing for the gold medal and the losers playing for the bronze.

On 3 April 2017, the National Hockey League announced that it would not participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics. While it was "open to hearing from any of the other parties who might have an interest in the issue," the NHLPA "confirmed that it has no interest or intention of engaging in any discussion that might make Olympic participation more attractive to the Clubs" and that it would not schedule a break for the Olympics in the 2017-18 season. The primary disagreement between the NHL, IIHF, and IOC appears to have been over who would pay to insure players. The IOC agreed to insure the players for the 2014 Olympics at a cost of $14 million, but was unwilling to pay again. IOC appeared concerned that if it continued to cover the costs of NHL players, other professional bodies would demand similar treatment. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman noted that the NHL does not profit from their presence in the Olympics, adding that, "in fact, we kind of disappear for two weeks because historically the IOC hasn't even let us join in promoting our participation in the Olympics."