Dominik Hasek makes shocking statements about the situation in Ukraine.

The ongoing conflict in the Ukraine has become a major source of concern for millions of people around the globe, and when we are talking about matters of life and death tensions can run extremely high.

One man who seems to be having a very emotional response to the situation is former National Hockey League goaltender Dominik Hasek, who recently took to social media and made some shocking statements regarding how he feels the NHL should be responding to the crisis. Hasek, who is considered by most hockey fans to be among the very best goaltenders in the history of the sport, called on the NHL to immediately put a halt to all their contracts with "Russian players."

Hasek did not specify if he meant players who were born in Russia, Russian nationals, or simply those of Russian heritage, but there was no mistaking his words. Hasek not only called on the NHL to take immediate action on this matter, but went so far as to suggest that the league would be indirectly responsible for the deaths of the Ukrainian people if they did not do as he suggested.

Hasek's statements appeared to come as a response to recent comments made by Alex Ovechkin, arguably the NHL's most prominent Russian athlete, and they were quite extreme in their nature. Here is Hasek's statement, unedited and in full:

What!? Not only an alibist, a chicken shit, but also a liar! Every adult in Europe knows well, that Putin is a mad killer and that Russia is waging an offensive war against the free country and its people. The NHL must immediately suspend contracts.

The NHL must immediately suspend contracts for all Russian players! Every athlete represents not only himself and his club, but also his country and its values and actions. That is a fact. If the NHL does not do so, it has indirect co-responsibility for the dead in Ukraine.

I also want to write, that I am very sorry for those Russian athletes, who condemn V. Putin and his Russian aggression in Ukraine. However, at the moment I also consider their exclusion a necessity.

Perhaps the most shocking part of these statements was that Hasek made it clear that even Russian athletes who condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin should be included in the actions he insists the NHL must take. At the time of this writing the statements have been publicly available on his social media for over 2 hours, which would appear to indicate that he is standing behind his words and doing so in spite of the fact that his comments have drawn considerable backlash from several of those leaving comments.

It would be wrong to punish players for simply being born in the wrong country, especially considering the fact that some of those very same players have arguably been the most vocal critics of Vladimir Putin even prior to the actions he has taken in the Ukraine this week. Thankfully I doubt very much that the NHL will heed Hasek's advice on this matter.