Valeri Nichushkin’s agent breaks silence on “alcohol-related incident”

The Colorado Avalanche have been without forward Valeri Nichushkin for the past two games in the first round series against the Seattle Kraken due to “personal reasons”. It all started prior to Game 3 when Nichushkin was designated a late scratch and was reported to have gone to the airport and departed Seattle.

More details later came from Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, who mentioned on the “Halford & Brough in the Morning” show on Vancouver’s Sportsnet 650 that Nichushkin’s absence is reportedly due to an alcohol-related incident at the team hotel in Seattle.

On Wednesday, Nichushkin’s agent Mark Gandler broke silence on the rumoured incident and denied the recent rumors.

“Nichushkin left Colorado because of problems with alcohol? This is not so.” Gandler told MetaRatings.

Though Gandler does not say a whole lot more about Nichushkin and what is keeping him out of action, the agent made it clear it had nothing to do with problems with alcohol.

Nichushkin appeared in 53 games for the defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche this season, scoring 17 goals while adding 30 assists. He was a force in Colorado’s title run last season, tallying nine goals in 20 playoff games and helping the Avalanche to their first Stanley Cup since 2001.

There will surely be more about this developing story coming out in the next few days. Later tonight, the Avalanche faces the Kraken in Game 5 of this series, which is tied 2-2.

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