That would be ignorance on your part. Countries were considering sanctioning Russia to the point of restricting entry for Russian citizens and it was an issue that very year for obvious reasons. Russia had just invaded a sovereign country and started a war that could have, and has now, seen the deaths of tens of thousands of people and hundreds of thousands of causalities. Russian sports competitors were banned and remain banned on some world stages. Russia itself could have decided to restrict its players in response to sanctions.
Just because you weren't paying attention or already forgot doesn't mean it didn't happen. I don't think the future of Russian players in the NHL is even to be taken for granted now.
Just because it happened doesn't make it right.
To punish innocent hard working athletes for the actions of their politicians is asinine. The whole guilt by association thing is even less relevant considering the only "association" per se is their country of birth.
I mean what a thing to tell a kid. Hey I know you've trained your ass off to get to the NHL and have no involvement in a war or politics, but because the leader of your nation did you're disqualified.
The acceptance of prejudice occurring is wild considering it's 2024. And so many Americans and Canadians like to pride themselves on being "progressive" yet they are demonizing people for where they were born. I can't understand how one can rationalize that.
Precluding Russia from this upcoming nations tournament makes the tournament invalid and punishes players like Vasy, Sorokin, Kucherov, Panarin, Kaprizov and many others for nothing.