It's always an honor to be selected to represent your country.
Today, the Blue Jackets and Team Finland announced that Jarmo Kekalainen will serve as assistant GM of Team Finland for the 2022 Beijing Olympics. He will help Jere Lehtinen, Finland's GM, in the selection of players that will represent Finland when it begins play at the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing, China.
Kekalainen has been the assistant GM of Finland twice before. The first time was in the 2014 Olympics, where Finland won the bronze medal. Then, in 2016, he served in the same capacity at the World Cup of Hockey.
The Beijing Olympics are scheduled for February 4th through the 20th in 2022, dates that fall in the middle of the NHL season. In 2018, the NHL did not send players to the Olympics, but the new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and NHLPA has opened the door to NHL participation in 2022. It's good for the growth of the sport to have its best players on the world stage, and it looks likely that's what will happen in Beijing.
