DENVER — Colorado Avalanche ahead Valeri Nichushkin has entered the NHL/NHLPA participant help program and will likely be away from the crew for an indefinite period of time.
The league and union introduced Monday that Nichushkin will return to the Avalanche as soon as he is cleared by program directors. No different info was offered.
Nichushkin, 28, turns into the second Avalanche participant to enter the participant help program this season. Defenseman Samuel Girard introduced in November that anxiousness and despair led to alcohol abuse and to him in search of remedy from this system. Girard returned in mid-December.
Nichushkin missed the sport Saturday in Toronto, with Avalanche coach Jared Bednar saying earlier than the sport that Nichushkin was “beneath the climate.” The Avalanche play in Montreal on Monday evening.
Nichushkin has 22 objectives and 20 assists in 40 video games this season. The Russian is 2 video games from reaching 500 regular-season contests for his profession.
Nichushkin was away from the crew within the playoffs final season for what the crew defined on the time had been private causes. He missed the ultimate 5 postseason video games of a first-round loss to Seattle.
His absence began after officers responded to a disaster name on the 4 Seasons Resort in Seattle the afternoon earlier than Recreation 3 on April 22. A 28-year-old lady was in an ambulance when officers arrived, and medics had been instructed to talk with an Avalanche crew doctor to assemble extra particulars.
The report, obtained on the time from the Seattle Police Division by The Related Press, mentioned the Avalanche doctor instructed officers that crew staff discovered the lady once they had been checking in on Nichushkin. The doctor instructed officers the lady gave the impression to be closely intoxicated — too intoxicated to have left the resort “in a trip share or cab service,” and requested EMS help.
When approached within the ambulance by officers, the lady said she was from Russia however born in Ukraine. She was transported to Virginia Mason Medical Heart in Seattle, in response to the report.
In September, Nichushkin deflected questions on his absence from the playoff collection. He mentioned he and the crew each determined for him to be away for the rest of the playoff collection in opposition to the Kraken. Colorado misplaced in seven video games.
