The NHL issued a statement in April claiming their players would not travel to South Korea for next year's Winter Olympic Games.

International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) President René Fasel said last month that a final decision on whether players will take part must be made by mid-July at the absolute latest.

He also revealed that he was still negotiating with both the NHL and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in an attempt to broker a deal.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman has said, however, that officials are not going to change their minds and reinforced this by confirming Tampa in Florida as the host city of its 2018 All-Star weekend on January 27 and January 28.

The All-Star weekend will be the first to be held in an Olympic year since 2002, when Salt Lake City staged the Games.

Zhukov told TASS "it would be nice" if the Pyeongchang 2018 tournament comes as "a fully-fledged event with the participation of NHL players".

"I’m deeply convinced that all the strongest athletes must participate in all sport events at the Olympic Games," he added on the sidelines of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum. 

"Ice hockey is the main tournament and this can't be done without the NHL.

"For well-known reasons, many of the best players are playing in the NHL."

IOC President Thomas Bach's refusal to continue covering travel and insurance costs of NHL players has been blamed for the failure to reach a deal.

The IOC had paid these costs since NHL players first appeared at Nagano 1998.

Russia and Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin is among the top players who have threatened to defy the NHL and take part at Pyeongchang 2018.

Bettman declined to say what the NHL would do in such a circumstance, saying there is "no reason to pick that fight right now".

He stressed, however, there was an "expectation that none of our players are going".

Zhukov is confident that Russia will field a strong ice hockey team, despite continued doubts over whether the country will be represented in Pyeongchang in any capacity whatsoever after the doping allegations in the McLaren Report prompted calls for the country to be completely excluded.

"Thanks to the strong Championship of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), our situation is a bit different," he told TASS.  

"In any case, we'll send a strong team to South Korea." 

Zhukov has warned boycotts and suspending athletes from Pyeongchang 2018 would be "dangerous" and could cause a "new rift" within the Olympic Movement.

The McLaren Report produced evidence that more than 1,000 Russian athletes were allegedly implicated in a scheme where samples were tampered with and manipulated at events including the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi.

Two IOC Commissions are currently investigating the evidence about Russia's performances at Sochi 2014 and defining their eligibility at Pyeongchang 2018.

The Oswald Commission is looking into "allegations" of sample manipulation while also analysing all samples given by Russian athletes at London 2012.

A second Schmid Commission is addressing the "institutional conspiracy across summer and winter sports athletes who participated with Russian officials within the Ministry of Sport and its infrastructure".

The result of the two Commissions are thought to be crucial in deciding the extent of Russian participation at Pyeongchang 2018.