Breaking: New information concerning the NHL's Olympic participation!

You have certainly heard the news: a report coming from Sport-Express' journalist Alexei Shevchenko suggested that Russian NHLers have been told by the league that there is a backup schedule in place should the league reach an agreement with the IOC for participation in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Since then, there has been a tremendous amount of speculation league-wide. However, Greg Wyshynski, from Yahoo Sports, has brought new information earlier today about this extremely controversial topic, and let's just say he was pretty clear:

"Is there an Alternate Olympic Schedule for the 2017-18 season? I asked a few league sources and got a few “I don’t knows. [...] Nothing has changed with regard to what needs to happen for the NHL to go to South Korea: FOr the IOC to share its wealth with the NHL, and/or for the NHLPA to cave and extend the CBA through 2025. And that’s with the assumption that the Olympics are still actually on the table, and there’s plenty of evidence to say they’re not."

Gary Bettman obviously denied the different claims about a possible NHL participation in late May, but that does not really mean anything to many people who believe the league is secretly planning to go anyways.

What do you think? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? Or is this just more rumor and speculation with no real basis?