Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin has been placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHL Players Association Player Assistance Program, the league said Monday, just hours before the team’s playoff game. against the Dallas Stars.
Nichushkin, under the terms of the Player Assistance Program, will be suspended without pay for a minimum of six months. He will then be eligible to apply for reinstatement, according to a statement issued by the NHL and NHLPA.
No further information has been provided as to why Nichushkin, who was on the ice with the team at the morning skate, was admitted to the program.
With Nichushkin out, Colorado, trailing 2-1 in the series against Dallas, turned to forward Jonathan Drouin, who returned to the lineup after a long absence. Drouin had missed all of Colorado’s postseason games before Monday after suffering a lower-body injury in the regular-season finale on April 18.
A league source told ESPN that the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program has four stages. The first stage is the first hospital treatment for which there is no penalty. Stage Two, in which, in violation of the Stage One treatment plan, a player may be suspended without pay during the active phase of treatment and then be eligible for reinstatement.
Stage Three, which is in violation of the State Two treatment plan, carries a suspension without pay for at least six months, at which time a player may be eligible for reinstatement. Stage Four, which violates the Stage Three treatment plan, carries a suspension of at least one year while reinstatement is not guaranteed.
For Nichushkin, the Avalanche’s latest absence will be his third in the last 13 months.
Nichushkin, 29,’s previous absence from the Avalanche came in mid-January when he was admitted to the player assistance program for undisclosed reasons. At the time of his absence, it was announced that he would be on indefinite leave.
Nichushkin returned to skating with the Avalanche in late February before returning to the lineup in their 2-1 overtime win on March 8 against the Minnesota Wild.
His first absence away from the Avalanche came last April when he missed the final five games of a first-round series that ended with the Avs’ loss to the Seattle Kraken.
At the time of his absence, the team said Nichushkin left for personal reasons. His absence came after offers responded to a call at the team hotel in Seattle the afternoon before the Avalanche and Kraken played Game 3 of their quarterfinal series.
A 28-year-old woman was in the ambulance when officers arrived with medical instructions to speak with an Avalanche team doctor for more details.
The police report, which was obtained by ESPN, among other outlets, says the Avalanche doctor told officers that team employees found the woman when they were checking on Nichushkin. The doctor told police that the woman appeared to be intoxicated and that she was too intoxicated to have left the hotel “on a rideshare or taxi service” and she needed EMS help.
When the Avalanche returned to preseason camp, Nichushkin told reporters “I think we should close it out. It’s a new season right now. We have to focus on that.”
Nichushkin, a first-round pick by the Stars in 2013, spent four seasons with the club that drafted him. He scored 23 goals and 74 points in 223 games and never reached the heights that come with being a first-round pick.
The Avalanche signed him at the beginning of the 2019-20 season to a one-year contract worth $850,000. Upon joining the Avs, Nichushkin worked his way from a bottom-six spot to becoming one of the team’s most important players. This led to him signing a two-year deal worth $2.5 million annually in 2020 before signing an eight-year deal worth $6.125 million annually that began at the start of the 2022-23 season.
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