Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin suspended for at least 6 months – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin was suspended without pay for at least six months and placed in the third phase of the league’s player assistance program ahead of Monday night’s Game 4 of a second-round series with Dallas.

The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association announced the news about an hour before the Stars’ game began. It’s the second time this season he’s been in the program. Level 3 means that Nichushkin violated the terms of the program.

The 29-year-old Russian forward will miss at least the remainder of the postseason and the first month of next season.

He leads the team with nine playoff goals this season.

Nichushkin was away for nearly two months earlier this season receiving treatment from the NHLPA/NHL Player Assistance Program for undisclosed issues. This came after the team missed the final five games of a playoff loss last season for personal reasons.

Nichushkin was unavailable to the team from January 13 to March 7 after joining the program. He was the second Avalanche player to join the program during the regular season, following defenseman Samuel Girard, who said in November that anxiety and depression led to alcohol abuse. Girard returned in mid-December.

In a first-round playoff series last spring against Seattle, Nichushkin abruptly left the team, citing personal reasons. His absence began after officials responded to a crisis call at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle before Game 3. A 28-year-old woman was in an ambulance when officers arrived, and paramedics were directed to speak with a doctor from the avalanche team to gather further details.

The report, which The Associated Press obtained from the Seattle Police Department at the time, said the avalanche doctor told officers that team members had found the woman while searching for Nichushkin. The doctor told officers that the woman appeared to be heavily intoxicated and was too intoxicated to have left the hotel “in a rideshare or taxi ride” and asked for emergency medical services to help her.

Before the season, Nichushkin dodged questions about the situation, saying only: “I know you want to find something there, but it’s nothing really interesting. “I think we should close it.”

AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno contributed to this report.