TAMPA, Fla. -- The NHL said there are "real concerns" about whether players will participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, both due to timing and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Commissioner Gary Bettman said Monday the league hasn't committed to building an Olympic break into its 2021-22 schedule.

"We don't know as of right now, and that's causing us a fair number of issues relative to getting next season up and running," he said during his state of the league address before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. "We have real concerns about whether or not its sensible to have our players participating and us shutting down for an Olympic break."

Chief among those issues is the ongoing pandemic and how it might impact the Beijing Games, scheduled to open in February 2022.

"With the continued uncertainty with the virus, with the Games being halfway around the world, it's not necessarily an ideal Games to go to," deputy commissioner Bill Daly said.

After skipping the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, the NHL agreed to allow its players to return to the Olympics in 2022 and 2026 as part of the four-year extension of the collective bargaining agreement they struck with the NHL Players' Association last summer. But that agreement didn't guarantee NHL players would represent their nations in the Winter Games. The league still needed to iron out issues with the International Olympic Committee that the NHL claims prevented them from going in 2018.

"We negotiated in good faith with the Players' Association last summer. We agreed that if the conditions were right and we could reach an agreement on all the material issues that we would commit and support going to the Olympics. That remains our position," Daly said.

He said the league and the IOC have "worked through a lot of the more basic issues" but that other issues such as COVID-19's impact on the Games remain obstacles.

"There are a couple remaining open issues. One has to do with the continued uncertainty of the Games, with respect to what the rules will be associated with the Games -- whether there will be spectators, whether there won't be spectators. How the Tokyo Games may impact how the Beijing Games are run. There are COVID-related insurance issues that are important to the players and the clubs and the league," he said.

Bettman said time is running short for the NHL to commit to the 2022 Olympics. Next season's schedule is due to be locked in somewhere between the end of the Stanley Cup Final and the NHL draft, which is set for July 23.

"It's reaching the point that we're getting concerned about the impact on next season because of the uncertainty," Bettman said. "We were already past the time where we hoped that it would be resolved."

An NHLPA spokesperson told ESPN on Monday "the sides are having ongoing discussions to try to reach an Olympic agreement. No doubt, with it being almost July, time is very tight."

Among the other bits of news at Bettman's news conference:

* The NHL announced a slate of major events for the 2021-22 season, which Bettman said will be 82 games and begin in mid-October.

The Winter Classic will be held at Target Field in Minneapolis between the St. Louis Blues and the Minnesota Wild on New Year's Day 2022, having been originally scheduled for Jan. 1, 2021. The NHL All-Star Game is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas on dates yet to be determined in 2022. The Nashville Predators will host a Stadium Series game at Nissan Stadium (home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans) on Feb. 26, 2022, against the Tampa Bay Lightning. There also are plans to have a Heritage Classic game in Canada next season.

Bettman said the NHL remains committed to holding an outdoor game in Raleigh for the Carolina Hurricanes, after their 2021 Stadium Series game was postponed.

* The NHL will continue to have advertisements placed on the helmets of players next season, but Bettman said there are no plans to have ads on jerseys for 2021-22. "I wouldn't necessarily say it's inevitable. It's something that makes good sense for us to be considering and looking at. But certainly not for next season. What happens beyond that, I'm not prepared to predict," Bettman said.

* Daly said that the NHL envisions having a salary cap in the Stanley Cup playoffs, as a product of collective bargaining with the players, "if we, as a league or the clubs, generally feel that change needs to be made."

There's been outcry this season after the Lightning played the entire regular season with star winger Nikita Kucherov on long-term injured reserve, only to have him return for the first game of the Stanley Cup playoffs -- something that would have put Tampa Bay over the cap in the regular season. "Nothing inappropriate was done here," Daly said. "The facts seem to align with the situation that Tampa was able to bring back a significant player for the playoffs."

* Bettman offered support to the NHL's on-ice officials, who have been roundly criticized for missed and incorrect calls during this postseason.

"No sport comes close to the speed and reaction time required to make or not make hundreds of calls in real time. Yes, our officials miss calls, just as coaches and players make mistakes. We don't like it when it happens -- in fact, we hate it -- but it's the nature of the human element of calling our game," Bettman said. "Overwhelmingly, our officials get it right."

Bettman said the style of play differs from the regular season to the playoffs, which "has an obvious impact on how officiating is perceived." He said the teams will decide how they play a playoff series, rather than the officials.