It comes amid diminishing prospects of virtually any players from the world's largest league participating at next February's Games in Pyeongchang.

Fetisov, an NHL star for the New Jersey Devils and Detroit Red Wings who also formed part of Olympic gold medal winning Soviet Union teams at Sarajevo 1984 and Calgary 1988, also claimed that the quality of the tournament will be significantly affected.

"No idiot will terminate the contract with the NHL club to play the Olympics,” the 59-year-old told Russia Today.

It follows a claim from Russia and Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin that he will travel to South Korea regardless of whether his league participates.

“For Alexander Ovechkin, the current situation is an unpleasant thing," Fetisov added.

"He will miss his chance to become an Olympic champion. 

"Although in 2022 at the Games in Beijing, Alexander might get another chance.

"Of course, the hockey tournament in South Korea will lose on the entertainment part because of the lack of NHL players.

"But interrupting the season for the Olympic Games would cost the league a lot of money. 

"I know they were looking to get some sort of compensation from the IOC and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)

“But [IOC President] Thomas Bach’s institution [IOC] does not share with anyone, despite earning huge money, while [IIHF President] Rene Fasel does not have funds for insurance of the players."

The world’s largest league announced in April that they would not participate for the first time since their inaugural Olympic appearance at Nagano 1998.

It is still possible that they could change their mind but Fasel admitted to insidethegames last week that it will take a "miracle" for this to happen.

Both he and representatives from the IOC have since insisted that the quality of the tournament will not be affected and that the NHL will miss out on the opportunity to have the sport and its leading names exposed to different markets.

Fasel did say that they would be open to any NHL players participating, if they wanted to, but has since been quoted by Russian website Sport-Express as saying that his body “respects and will respect the NHL contracts” and will not back players wanting to compete regardless.

Swedish defenseman and Ottawa Senators captain Erik Karlsson is among those to have confirmed they will not play.

“You can have guys go and ask their owners if they can go and play,” he told Sportsnet.

"Would I like to do that? Yeah, I would like to go to play in the Olympics. 

"But am I going to? I’m not. 

"I’m not going to leave in the middle of February, leave my team-mates, go and ask if I can go do something on my own. 

"So yeah, the door is completely shut, unfortunately, for NHL players to go and play in the Olympics.”