A woman who was found in the Seattle hotel room of Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin before Game 3 last Saturday had to be taken to the hospital after she was found to be “severely intoxicated,” per a police report obtained by Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times. Nichushkin has reportedly left the team and hasn’t rejoined since.
According to a police report obtained by the Seattle Times, Avalanche team doctor Bradley Changstrom told police that team officials found the woman “in the room, heavily intoxicated” when going to check on Nichushkin, and he called 9-1-1 because he felt she couldn’t get sent home by herself. Changstrom claims the woman hit him when he found her as well, but that he did not plan on pressing charges.
The report added that the 28-year-old woman told police while in an ambulance that she was born in Ukraine, but from Russia and that she “should never have come to the United States and that some guy took her passport and that he was a bad person.” The woman was held at a Seattle-area medical center because she was dangerous over “assaultive behavior and gravely disabled for being so intoxicated to a point that she is unable to care for herself out in public,” according to the report.
Todd Fuller, a Denver police lieutenant who traveled with the team for security, told Seattle police that he does not believe anything illegal happened in the room.
Mark Gandler, Nichushkin’s agent, denied the player’s involvement entirely.
“No one was found in Val’s room,” he said, via Peter Baugh of The Athletic. “These events have nothing to do with Val.”
The Avalanche revealed that Nichushkin, who played in the first two games of Colorado’s first-round playoff series, left the team, but Colorado did not specify why, saying that he was away for “personal reasons.” Prior to Game 6 against the Kraken on Friday, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar declined to comment on the matter.
