The Frenchman says that he would like a decision on NHL participation by the northern hemisphere spring of 2024 at the latest.

At the IIHF World Junior Championship in Canada, he said that would allow involved parties two years to prepare for the event.

"I'm optimistic, but everybody has to do an effort to be there,” Tardif said, as reported by NBC Sports.

"You need to have the same rules as the other athletes.

"We are not a travel agency.

"We organize a competition."

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told The Associated Press that it is "likely a reasonable timeline".

The league and its Players' Association have agreed to participate at Milan Cortina 2026, after missing out on the last two editions of the Games, if they can reach a deal with the IIHF and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

"If we discussed directly with the players - the players want to go - we would find a way," Tardif continued.

"But it's more complicated than that."

The NHL did not participate in Pyeongchang in 2018 after the IOC refused to pay for travel and insurance costs as it did on five previous occasions from Nagano 1998 to Sochi 2014.

The NHL also said they were unwilling to disrupt their season in order to allow the players to take part at Pyeongchang 2018 and claimed "no meaningful dialogue [had] materialised" after months of deadlocked discussions.

Beijing 2022 was also without NHL players, with COVID-19's disruption to its regular season.

An increase in COVID-19 cases despite the NHL players being close to 100 per cent vaccinated had led to postponements of matches, while players had expressed concerns over quarantine regulations at Beijing 2022.

An agreement had been reached by the NHL and NHLPA in September which would allow players to compete at the Games.

However, a COVID-19 stipulation was inserted, which meant players would not travel to Beijing if the NHL regular season was "materially impacted" by the pandemic.