SEATTLE — A Colorado Avalanche team physician encountered a woman who was heavily intoxicated when checking on Valeri Nichushkin prior to Game 3 of Colorado’s first-round series with Seattle, according to a Seattle Police Department Behavioral Crisis Report obtained by The Athletic.
Nichushkin’s agent, Mark Gandler, denied his client’s involvement in a text message to The Athletic.
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“No one was found in Val’s room,” he said. “These events have nothing to do with Val.”
Nichushkin has been away from the Avalanche since Saturday for what the team has called “personal reasons.” Gandler echoed that statement and declined to answer if it was Nichushkin or the Avalanche’s decision for him to be away from the team.
Nichushkin is the only Avalanche player mentioned by name in the report. The officer wrote he did not know of any family connections between Nichushkin and the woman. He listed their relationship status as unknown.
According to the report: At 3:20 p.m. Pacific on Saturday, an aid request was called to 99 Union Street, where the Avalanche were staying at the Four Seasons Hotel. Two Seattle police officers arrived at the hotel in response to a crisis call at 3:44 p.m.
An Avalanche team physician told authorities he encountered the woman, whom The Athletic is choosing not to identify, after team employees checked on Nichushkin before the game. The report did not indicate why the employees might have been checking on Nichushkin. The physician told officers he believed the woman was too intoxicated to have left the hotel in a rideshare or cab service, so he called 9-1-1. Seattle police arrived to assist the fire department medics, and the physician said the woman hit him but that he did not want to press charges.”
A Denver police lieutenant traveling with the team told Seattle police that there were “no reports of any criminal interactions beyond (the woman) being heavily intoxicated.”
An ambulance took the 28-year-old woman to Harborview Medical Center. She was in stable condition, according to information obtained via a public records request to the fire department. Inside the ambulance, the woman told one of the Seattle police officers that “some guy took her passport and that he was a bad person.” She did not elaborate. She said she was from Russia but born in Ukraine.
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The morning of Game 3, Bednar said Nichushkin was taking a maintenance day.
“That’s the information I had at the time: it was a maintenance day,” Bednar said the next day. “Then he left for personal reasons. If he was around and could be around, then he would be available to play.”
When asked about the police report in his pregame press conference on Friday, Jared Bednar said he could not comment because “it’s personal reasons.” He declined to comment on if Nichushkin or the team made the decision for him to be away, whether Nichushkin violated team rules or what his location is. He reiterated a previous statement that it’s not a disciplinary issue. Asked why it’s not disciplinary, Bednar said, “Because it’s personal.”
Asked if the situation has been a distraction to the team the past few days, Colorado defenseman Jack Johnson said no.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a distraction,” he said. “It’s just (he’s) a guy we would love to have in our lineup.”
Nichushkin was in the lineup for the first two games of the series, which Colorado trails 3-2 heading into Game 6 on Friday.
Bednar said the team is in contact with Nichushkin. There is no active police investigation into Nichushkin related to the incident.
An Avalanche spokesperson did not provide a comment on the incident report and said that president of hockey operations Joe Sakic and general manager Chris MacFarland would not address the media Friday morning. The NHL Players’ Association also did not have a comment at this time.
Nichushkin, who is 28, is in the first year of an eight-year contract worth $6.125 million annually.
(Photo: Isaiah J. Downing / USA Today)
