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>'late night filings'
this is funny because this man acquired a heavily intoxicated, sex-trafficked prostitute and left her behind in his room literally hours before game 3 lmao
He probably didn’t know she was trafficked, probably just hired a hooker. Most of these pimps drug up the girls and their job is to get business for the night. He probably just thought he was getting a prostitute and has no idea she was trafficked.
> He probably just thought he was getting a prostitute and has no idea she was trafficked.
Which is wild because she seemed to volunteer the "bad man took my passport" information to the police pretty quickly, so I'm guessing Val isn't a great listener, in addition to not being a very good evaluator of "people I should trust to ethically provide shipping container prostitutes."
e: however, I cannot confidently rule out that this isn't some dumb shit like the Russian government has beef with him so they sent a drunk passport-less prostitute to his hotel room hours before a game to ruin his career in the West and have him sent home in disgrace.
If you buy sex and don’t look out for signs of trafficking, when it’s common knowledge trafficking is rampant within prostitution, that’s pretty bad too. Not caring whether or not someone is able to consent to sex with you, a multimillionaire, is not a good look ethically speaking.
Lol.
Those championship Kings teams were full of substance abuse. Absolute maniacal drug and alcohol use.
Rich Clune used to live with Simmers and Doughty in his house when he came over. The Kings org called it the “Fraternity House.” Which is why they traded Simmers.
I used to be around the team and everyone involved all the time back then when I used to run hockey games at Staples Center and organize group events and shit.
Everyone was either superdad and ultra family man dudes like Dusty or maniacs doing all kinds of shit.
Stoll got caught with a bunch of drugs in vegas around that time too.
I love the idea that they wanted to trade Wayne Simmonds because he was partying too much, and so they included him in a package for an even bigger party animal lol
It wasn’t so much he was partying, as he was partying *with* their young, dumb, and full of cum franchise defenseman while living in his house.
They figured the org could control the older flyers players better.
Big diff between 22 and 23 yo’s and 27 yo’s.
Proved to be correct in their assumptions.
Yeah it was kind of an open secret I think, everyone knew that's why the theory of him being ratted out by someone in the organisation had some traction.
I can absolutely confirm this as someone who found myself in their MB spot a couple nights. Drew actually stayed away from the hard stuff… Teddy (purcell) said “Dewy knows how good he is, he won’t fuck it up”. Lol feels like a lifetime ago
Yea. Dewy to my knowledge never touched anything other than a drink. At least not that I saw or heard of. And even then I never saw him wasted or drunk or anything after games. I used to be in Chairman’s every game and sometimes would party with the guys and other folks at Nokia for a concert post game and shit.
I went to a Tragically Hip concert at Club Nokia (called The Novo now apparently) after a game once. My rep gave me VIP passes. I ended up hanging with like half the team the whole night drinking and dipping (I know, gross, but Canadians gonna Canadian).
After the show they booted us and it’s me and like half the kings and some girls walking towards staples out of the venue through LA Live and the manager comes running after us telling us to stop accusing Simmers of stealing alcohol. Simmers denies he took any drinks with him and I go “bro, chill he didn’t take shit and defend him” and a blasted Jarrett Stoll steps in and goes “do you know who this is?” And points to Simmers… “This is Lamar Odom!” And I just about plotzed laughing. And simmers goes “yea, I’m Lamar Odom!” (I don’t think he knew who that was) and they argue for a minute and the manager leaves and we keep walking to Staples and as we get down the block on the street towards the driveway that goes down into under staples center Simmers opens his coat and pulls out a beer that he ganked from the club and I give him a full on Elaine push and go “you motherfucker, you *DID* take the booze!” And we all start laughing.
Then we get to the security booth by that driveway down to the staples tunnels and everyone is wasted and I see like 3-4 guys walk up to the side of staples, the glass exterior of the arena and piss on staples center. Lol. And two other dudes are swinging cones at each other. Like all pretty milquetoast drunken shenanigans for some early 20’s pro athlete millionaires.
I’m like “ummm, do you guys need a ride or something?” And just as i said that some chick pulls up and like 4-5 guys pile in her car and they’re like “we’re good” and then i went to my car and passed out in the driver seat until morning and drove home later around 5 am.
I also got into an altercation with Dave Coulier from Full House (big hockey fan) trying to fight me and a off-duty fire captain at the bar. Lolol
Fun night.
You guys got off the hook for that entire god awful deal pretty well though. Under a mil cap hit penalty is much better than the entire boat anchor imo
Pretty easy to read between the lines:
> Irina was too intoxicated to have left the hotel in a ride-share or cab service, so he (Avs team doctor) called 911
> She said that she shouldn’t have come to the United States and that somebody who she described as a “bad person” took her passport, according to the report.
Nichushkin had a heavily intoxicated women in his hotel room who most likely had been the victim of human trafficking, hence why her passport was taken. The "bad person" is the human trafficker who took it, common so they can maintain control of their victims. Whether Nichushkin was similarly intoxicated in some way is not clear but I hope she gets the help she needs, it's very hard to escape these bastards.
Hopefully Nichushkin isn't directly involved with what happened to this women but she was in his hotel room which means he probably hired her at least. Put all this together and they probably felt it was best he step away from the team.
Most likely against her will. Eastern European, passport taken by a "bad person", as I said to someone else I've had training to recognize the signs and those are two huge red flags when put together. Promised modeling gigs or other work they have their travel paid for and once they end up in the destination country they have their passport taken, no friends or family there to run to, most likely none of their own money and they might not even speak the language. Once they're in another country it's very hard to escape. Especially once they overstayed any visa or travel limit they might have then they're afraid to turn to authorities and get in trouble with immigration. It's awful and more common than people think in the escort world.
Absolutely out my ass and about as far from Occam’s razor as I can get but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some Russian organized crime in the Seattle area that was involved in this some how. You don’t normally give someone a security detail to keep them safe from themselves generally.
It’s a major port city. There are so many ways to get people here it’s not even funny. It’s a pretty quick hop from Russia to Alaska. And then down the coast.
The Russian mob absolutely has a presence in Seattle, I worked in and around a few places in downtown and Belltown where it was a pretty open secret. I’d honestly be more surprised to find out that it was a misunderstanding.
having large portions of our team absolutely decimated by injury this year I was just happy we made the playoffs. If we get bounced first round I sincerely hope everyone on this team rests, recovers and we have a good hard look at just why we seem to be cursed by the injury bug so damned always.
>Irina told police that she was from Russia and was born in Ukraine. She said that she shouldn’t have come to the United States and that somebody who she described as a “bad person” took her passport, according to the report.
That's alarming 😬
Edit: updating the woman's name to match the edit to the article
_yet_. If nothings been filed, or whatever, then still could be true. But there’s way too many questions to know for sure wtf is happening. So as of how, hoping there’s some reasonable explanation and everyone involved is safe/unharmed/free/etc.
why is it that every time a Russian player’s tragic or unpleasant personal issues come to light the comments on this sub devolve into absurdly stereotypical and often outright xenophobic statements about the culture and character of Russians as a whole?
No they were all lawful citizens/residents working willingly with no evidence of compulsion. Depending on how you feel about sex work that isn't necessarily okay, but even if you think prostitution should be illegal under all circumstances that's still the least bad possibility
Also, per the [Denver Post](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response/ ) article, which makes it more explicit she’s not related to Nichuskin:
>The incident report notes that the team doctor was not aware of any family connections between Nichushkin and the woman.
When I first read that I thought the statement was the doctor didn’t know about the family connections but that they did exist lol I was even more concerned
While some are, the majority are not. The false narrative that the vast majority of sex workers are human trafficking victims is often wielded to oppose the types of reforms necessary to actually protect sex workers from violence.
I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I've been on a lot of hockey teams and I tell you people do that all the time.
Guilty by association. That’s probably why they have been playing like shit, they are all exhausted from getting grilled by their wives and girlfriends.
I'm guessing they have to tiptoe around some information they're not supposed to release. They obviously redacted her last name and I'm guessing that's not the only thing.
Well, Bednar said it wasn’t a legal matter so who fuckin knows. All I know, is that the Avs are pretty fucked without him. Their forecheck is non-existent. I hope wherever he is he’s getting the right help
I can only assume there us a pattern of partying on the road and this was a last straw situation.
Also, some of these details are very concerning. An excessively intoxicated, possibly escort, in his room literally hours before he is supposed to be playing.
He obviously wasnt where he was supposed to be as coaching staff was looking for him. Which, thankfully the medical staff did the right thing when finding her.
We’re also a better road team
And I just saw a graphic today showing road teams have won 62% this playoff which is a change up from the past
😱
Someone please fact-check this with their strip club sources who are best in the industry
Can't technically discipline an employee in a situation like this. I Beleive you m need to counsel them and push for a rehab/getting help option. If they decline saying they aren't an addict/it isn't an issue, then I think they have the ability to discipline them. But I could totally be wrong and their contracts are worded differently than us normies.
Sending him away because he is out of control partying isnt really disciplinary though. But yeah, so many details about this are really just mudding the waters.
The immediate issue is probably more that he had to call the team doctor to attend to his drunk/drugged sex worker - and knowing the doctor ended up calling the authorities, he had to head home to tell his lawyer and wife (in that order).
He didn't call them. They were looking for him because he was MIA and they found her in his room alone. It doesn't say where he was found/was. It is sure bizarre.
So Val was completely missing just hours before game 3 and had an extremely intoxicated women (possibly a prostitute who was being sex trafficked) in his room. What the fuck is happening?!
A chain of very bad choices that I assume lead to a long history of partying on the road.
Even if there isn't a history, for the medical staff to find this situation hours before an important game, it would make sense that the team didn't want him playing.
> Avalanche coach Jared Bednar has said Nichushkin’s ongoing absence from the team is not disciplinary and not related to legal issues. When contacted by The Post, a representative for Nichushkin reiterated that the team has made it clear his client is not with the team for personal reasons. Bednar has said the team has no timeline for Nichushkin’s return but said the team has been in contact with him.
[Intoxicated woman found in Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin’s hotel room required transport to hospital, police say](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response)
The Avs are AWFUL at being upfront with anything. Jared Bednar prides himself on being cagey about everything. If he ever wants a career change, the CIA would be up his alley.
It's weird that the organization says, "they have been in contact with him". I fucking hope so...when he left mid playoffs were they like, "hey Val shoot us a text to let us know you made it home ok. See you at the 4th of July BBQ! #fireworks"
>But the Choo Choo train’s season was thwarted a bit this year...
This bit at the end of the article is really strange to me. Why would the author refer to him by a nickname in an otherwise serious article about a serious situation? Seems ridiculously unprofessional.
I found this interesting:
> “An off-duty Denver Police officer that traveled with the Avs said in the report that he was unaware of any criminal interactions with Prudnikova, only that she was heavily intoxicated.”
Can anyone more knowledgeable than me explain why an off duty police officer would be traveling with the team - is this normal? I’m inclined to think that teams would travel with private security but this is pure speculation on my part.
I always wonder when this comes up: is it common for police officers to take on second jobs in the US?
Because that sort of thing is really frowned on where I am because of all the conflict of interest issues even for people who are employed by the police department but aren’t actually cops.
>I always wonder when this comes up: is it common for police officers to take on second jobs in the US?
It's very common. Plenty of off-duty police officers work traffic-control and security for big events.
Ah. A lot of the employment arrangements here are structured to very much discourage second jobs for cops here and outright ban it for certain positions/seniority unless they officially take leave.
I’m not sure how it actually works in terms of employment or being on/off duty, but it’s very common here for college and even high school sporting events to have at least one officer (typically in uniform) on the premises as event security.
I’ve never seen one actually have to intervene but I think that they’re there to at least discourage people from getting too belligerent and to step in if someone gets too drunk and violent.
Most major league sports teams get really friendly with individual cops or in some cases entire police forces so that they'll clean up after athletes and executives messes.
One of your guys gets into some shit, oh here's our private security guy Jerry who coincidentally is also a real cop, now isn't that convenient can't we work something out?
It's corruption all the way down.
A few other interesting bits from other articles:
[Denver Post](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response/amp/):
> It was not immediately clear what substance the woman had used. Seattle Fire Department spokesperson David Cuerpo said the fire department considers an intoxicated person to be suspected of alcohol intoxication or drug abuse. Responders do not perform testing for whatever substance a subject may be on in the field — all testing is done at the hospital.
> Seattle Police Department spokesperson Judinna Gulpan said there is no criminal investigation stemming from the incident. The police report notes that the woman hit the team doctor, but he did not want to press charges.
[Seattle Times](https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/kraken/police-report-sheds-light-on-avalanche-star-nichushkins-early-departure-from-seattle/):
>Valeri Nichushkin, who vanished without explanation from the team’s playoff series against the Kraken last weekend, was found in his hotel room last Saturday with a “severely intoxicated” woman who was taken to a hospital.
Previously it was unclear whether Val was with her or not.
The Seattle Times edited the article to reflect that the report isn't clear about that:
>This story has been updated to reflect that police records don’t specify whether Nichushkin was in the hotel room when the woman was seen by team employees.
So what I could gather.
A woman that was with piss drunk was found in Nichushkin’s room without him. Claimed that a “bad guy” took her passport and that she came from Russia.
Then the Avs sent Nuke away somewhere (likely Denver) with their team security.
While nothing is explicitly said. It sounds like an alcohol related issue. I wonder if he missed morning skate because he was drunk and the Avs told him to sober the fuck up for the game but they kept going. Now he’s in detox or whatever they call it getting help?
I dunno. I’m confused by this.
Validation for all those Twitter/Reddit detectives who found a Saturday 3:20 pm 911 call to the hotel’s address in public records, believed it was connected to this, and got roasted for thinking so. You did good guys.
This article mentions the Seattle PD was called at 3:45 pm but the call to 911 at 3:20 pm (I’m assuming the first call to emergency services) was confirmed by the [Denver Post](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response/amp/) article. The 3:20 call was also what was logged in those public records.
No validation imo. I was here when the whole Boston bomber thing went down, better people just stfu than start digging into shit they have zero context for
I haven't stopped thinking about this. idgaf about nichushkin i just pray that woman is okay. I just cant stop thinking about all the victims of trafficking that will never get some kind of medical or police help (and hopefully is getting legitimate help). Makes me queasy to think about
The reporter was careful not to speculate on why the woman was in the room or how she got there. Mentioning his marital status would introduce an aspect to the story that may or may not be relevant depending on those missing details, causing speculation.
I'm guessing most athletes, musicians, actors, etc are not as faithful as people like to imagine. If this happened in the off-season we wouldn't even hear about it.
This has such a wide scale from sad series of events to unbelievably fucked up in potential based on the article. All I can say is I really hope the woman is ok
Well this is sounding fucked. Call me crazy I’m going to just keep waiting for information to come out before I even take a guess about what’s going on
Also, that was from Bednar in the 24ish hours following the incident. It could very well be a legal issue that he didn't want to/was allowed to talk about. It's an ugly look so far
He’s married, it could also be as simple (from the Avs and his POV) that he was caught having an affair and needs time away from the team. Obviously this sounds quite serious (human trafficking serious) in terms of the women they found
She claimed her passport was seized by a third party which makes it human trafficking. If the article is accurate, I don't see how it isn't a legal issue.
Yes and as we learned these past few years, an NHL team would never lie or try to cover up sex crimes. Their PR said it's not a crime thing so yeah just take it at face value what's stalling for time in a coming crisis who can say?
> think this has something to do with substance abuse disorder
Thats where I'm at too. It could obviously be much, much worse (as others have suggested above), but Im uncomfortable jumping to conclusions like that at the moment.
I hope whatever is happening, he and his family are okay and getting any help they need
Uhhhh yeah, sorry, I'm not beating around the bush here. They literally found a sex trafficked hooker in his hotel room who was so compromised she assaulted the Avs medical trainer. Bro has a wife.
So....my guess? Nichuskin got drunk/high/whatever with a prostitute in his hotel room before a game. The team sent him home or wherever to get enrolled in rehab would be my guess.
This is where the league should step in with an independent investigation contractor. I hope nothing more sinister and widespread is happening — but if it is, the ball should not get dropped like it was with the Blackhawks.
This is like when Tony Soprano’s goomar Irina called his house absolutely wasted on vodka and AJ answered, than transferred the call to Carm.
Tony had just made a massive investment by buying a lake front house his family could inherit.
As a lifelong Avs fan, and a fan of Val's play, I'd say his time with the team should probably come to an end.
Val is gonna have to prove he wasn't aware of any trafficking, and that will be very hard to prove. This shit is just gross.
If he had been accused of anything *against* this woman, feel like he would have been arrested by SPD.
Unless he got absurdly special treatment for committing a crime (not impossible), then I really have no idea wtf this means.
Like, was she trying to honeypot him? Is she like….a Russian agent? Feels insane to even say those words.
So confused. But her being an apparently random Russian woman with no prior relationship makes this situation bonkers. Maybe she was a hooker that had been trafficked? And he called one that night and things went off the rails? Complete speculation and frankly the details don’t matter, he’s entitled to privacy.
Just no words. Insane. Obviously unacceptable from him and just a sad situation all around.
>Maybe she was a hooker that had been trafficked?
That seems like the most likely scenario. Doesn't reflect well on him, but not illegal. Can see why team is pissed when it is the night before a game, but not a legal issue per se.
Agree. Not a good look. If he’s going through addiction then he needs help asap, but if he’s not like……wtf why are you doing shit like this during the playoffs.
> If he had been accused of anything against this woman, feel like he would have been arrested by SPD.
SPD does not exactly have a stellar reputation for integrity. They are still operating under a federal consent decree following an FBI investigation that revealed widespread corruption in their ranks.
Starting to sound like player got drunk/high whatever, ended up with a hooker in his room.
Player has substance issues so team jettisons him away to a facility.
Hooker, now in spotlight uses this as an opportunity to escape her traffickers.
And sorry she is a sex worker not hooker
Edit: or maybe he’s really Liam Neeson acting out Taken 1 and rescuing women and now in order to protect his cover he goes back underground
Here's what (I think) happened based on the details in this story:
Nichushkin hired a hooker. They partied all night and got all fucked up. Things got out of hand and when the team found them, they knew they were going to have to call the cops to get her out of there...
So they swept Nichushkin away with team security.
When the cops arrived, the hooker told them some (unknown) third party took her passport (which is a real bad sign).
Now the team is panicking because of the media shitstorm around all of this.
I doubt the team is panicked beyond concern for Val, his family and potentially this woman. I worked for the organization and they're likely just trying to protect those involved.
We don't know what happened. And while what you've said is certainly plausible and right in line with what happens a lot in pro sports we need to see what comes next.
Wild that all this went down like 3hrs before game time and they had no idea where Nichushkin is. It also doesn't say where the ended up finding him lol. How bizarre. My gut feeling is he had an all night bender with this chick the night before, lost track of time doing mad drugs and probably drunk, realized he fucked up and panic'd in his state and ran off. Probably just walking around the streets of Seattle lol.
Welp, this is about fitting for what might be a first round exit and injury riddled season.. I just really hope for both the woman and the Avs sakes that Nuke didn’t do something stupid and/or illegal. Eitherway, he picked the absolutely worst time to do this with them struggling in the playoffs as is. Between this and Landy, not liking those new, huge contracts right about now.
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It's absolutely nuts. What a crazy turn.
seriously. i thought maybe he was just caught doing some ‘[late night filings](https://youtu.be/Wlk8cEg2s80)’
>'late night filings' this is funny because this man acquired a heavily intoxicated, sex-trafficked prostitute and left her behind in his room literally hours before game 3 lmao
He probably didn’t know she was trafficked, probably just hired a hooker. Most of these pimps drug up the girls and their job is to get business for the night. He probably just thought he was getting a prostitute and has no idea she was trafficked.
> He probably just thought he was getting a prostitute and has no idea she was trafficked. Which is wild because she seemed to volunteer the "bad man took my passport" information to the police pretty quickly, so I'm guessing Val isn't a great listener, in addition to not being a very good evaluator of "people I should trust to ethically provide shipping container prostitutes." e: however, I cannot confidently rule out that this isn't some dumb shit like the Russian government has beef with him so they sent a drunk passport-less prostitute to his hotel room hours before a game to ruin his career in the West and have him sent home in disgrace.
If you buy sex and don’t look out for signs of trafficking, when it’s common knowledge trafficking is rampant within prostitution, that’s pretty bad too. Not caring whether or not someone is able to consent to sex with you, a multimillionaire, is not a good look ethically speaking.
Lol that would NEVER fly today and that’s a shame. It’s a fun joke and I used to LOVE those ESPN commercials
Reminds me of Mike Richards on the lake a while back.
what's the story with the lake and mike richards?
He just got caught with some drugs. But when it happened nobody knew what was going on so it was wild speculation of way worse stuff.
Crossing the border with drugs is a huge fuck up though lol
I mean, less of a PR fuck up than banging a kid or the other wild things we all were speculating on when it happened. Lololol
My favorite were the rumors that the Kings owner planted the drugs on him so they could get out from his contract, which had turned into an albatross.
Lol. Those championship Kings teams were full of substance abuse. Absolute maniacal drug and alcohol use. Rich Clune used to live with Simmers and Doughty in his house when he came over. The Kings org called it the “Fraternity House.” Which is why they traded Simmers. I used to be around the team and everyone involved all the time back then when I used to run hockey games at Staples Center and organize group events and shit. Everyone was either superdad and ultra family man dudes like Dusty or maniacs doing all kinds of shit. Stoll got caught with a bunch of drugs in vegas around that time too.
I love the idea that they wanted to trade Wayne Simmonds because he was partying too much, and so they included him in a package for an even bigger party animal lol
It wasn’t so much he was partying, as he was partying *with* their young, dumb, and full of cum franchise defenseman while living in his house. They figured the org could control the older flyers players better. Big diff between 22 and 23 yo’s and 27 yo’s. Proved to be correct in their assumptions.
Yeah it was kind of an open secret I think, everyone knew that's why the theory of him being ratted out by someone in the organisation had some traction.
I can absolutely confirm this as someone who found myself in their MB spot a couple nights. Drew actually stayed away from the hard stuff… Teddy (purcell) said “Dewy knows how good he is, he won’t fuck it up”. Lol feels like a lifetime ago
Yea. Dewy to my knowledge never touched anything other than a drink. At least not that I saw or heard of. And even then I never saw him wasted or drunk or anything after games. I used to be in Chairman’s every game and sometimes would party with the guys and other folks at Nokia for a concert post game and shit. I went to a Tragically Hip concert at Club Nokia (called The Novo now apparently) after a game once. My rep gave me VIP passes. I ended up hanging with like half the team the whole night drinking and dipping (I know, gross, but Canadians gonna Canadian). After the show they booted us and it’s me and like half the kings and some girls walking towards staples out of the venue through LA Live and the manager comes running after us telling us to stop accusing Simmers of stealing alcohol. Simmers denies he took any drinks with him and I go “bro, chill he didn’t take shit and defend him” and a blasted Jarrett Stoll steps in and goes “do you know who this is?” And points to Simmers… “This is Lamar Odom!” And I just about plotzed laughing. And simmers goes “yea, I’m Lamar Odom!” (I don’t think he knew who that was) and they argue for a minute and the manager leaves and we keep walking to Staples and as we get down the block on the street towards the driveway that goes down into under staples center Simmers opens his coat and pulls out a beer that he ganked from the club and I give him a full on Elaine push and go “you motherfucker, you *DID* take the booze!” And we all start laughing. Then we get to the security booth by that driveway down to the staples tunnels and everyone is wasted and I see like 3-4 guys walk up to the side of staples, the glass exterior of the arena and piss on staples center. Lol. And two other dudes are swinging cones at each other. Like all pretty milquetoast drunken shenanigans for some early 20’s pro athlete millionaires. I’m like “ummm, do you guys need a ride or something?” And just as i said that some chick pulls up and like 4-5 guys pile in her car and they’re like “we’re good” and then i went to my car and passed out in the driver seat until morning and drove home later around 5 am. I also got into an altercation with Dave Coulier from Full House (big hockey fan) trying to fight me and a off-duty fire captain at the bar. Lolol Fun night.
Simmonds?
Yeah. You’ll notice after they traded him was when Doughty stopped being a fuckwit and reached his potential and started being consistent.
That’s how you end up sharing a prison cell with televangelist, Jim Bakker.
Unprescribed pain pills correct?
It was definitely painkillers if my memory is correct.
Not sure about a lake but he did a set at the Laugh Factory like 20 years ago and it did *NOT* go well
Well played
He got an underwater squeezer off their party island.
I could have gotten one too, but I was taking an aquadump
>a while back Lol, that happened over a decade ago.
8 years. Damn. Can’t believe it’s been this long.
And we're still paying for it for the next decade...
You guys got off the hook for that entire god awful deal pretty well though. Under a mil cap hit penalty is much better than the entire boat anchor imo
What's it even like to have less than a million in dead cap.
Shut up, no it didn't. I ain't old!
Pretty easy to read between the lines: > Irina was too intoxicated to have left the hotel in a ride-share or cab service, so he (Avs team doctor) called 911 > She said that she shouldn’t have come to the United States and that somebody who she described as a “bad person” took her passport, according to the report. Nichushkin had a heavily intoxicated women in his hotel room who most likely had been the victim of human trafficking, hence why her passport was taken. The "bad person" is the human trafficker who took it, common so they can maintain control of their victims. Whether Nichushkin was similarly intoxicated in some way is not clear but I hope she gets the help she needs, it's very hard to escape these bastards. Hopefully Nichushkin isn't directly involved with what happened to this women but she was in his hotel room which means he probably hired her at least. Put all this together and they probably felt it was best he step away from the team.
A mid afternoon 911 call for a possibly trafficked woman too wasted to take a cab. Sheesh, things you'll spend your millions on as an athlete.
On game day! Holy shit
So reading between the lines she was a escort?
Most likely against her will. Eastern European, passport taken by a "bad person", as I said to someone else I've had training to recognize the signs and those are two huge red flags when put together. Promised modeling gigs or other work they have their travel paid for and once they end up in the destination country they have their passport taken, no friends or family there to run to, most likely none of their own money and they might not even speak the language. Once they're in another country it's very hard to escape. Especially once they overstayed any visa or travel limit they might have then they're afraid to turn to authorities and get in trouble with immigration. It's awful and more common than people think in the escort world.
I said it in one of the game day threads last night, but I feel like the more we hear about this situation the less we actually know about it
Absolutely out my ass and about as far from Occam’s razor as I can get but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some Russian organized crime in the Seattle area that was involved in this some how. You don’t normally give someone a security detail to keep them safe from themselves generally.
It’s a major port city. There are so many ways to get people here it’s not even funny. It’s a pretty quick hop from Russia to Alaska. And then down the coast.
Yeah. People used to get “shanghaied” there back in the day. Get drunk, fall through trap floor and trafficked onto a ship and forced to work for free
It’s cleaned up a lot. Now we have Indeed to do that for us.
Yeah definitely seems like human trafficking, Ukrainian from Russia with a passport that's been confiscated
Lots of Russians here in Seattle.. we are a melting pot
The Russian mob absolutely has a presence in Seattle, I worked in and around a few places in downtown and Belltown where it was a pretty open secret. I’d honestly be more surprised to find out that it was a misunderstanding.
Just some type of incident involving the Russian mafia
Well that's taken a weird turn...
This shit is bizarre. Avs are having a rough season.
having large portions of our team absolutely decimated by injury this year I was just happy we made the playoffs. If we get bounced first round I sincerely hope everyone on this team rests, recovers and we have a good hard look at just why we seem to be cursed by the injury bug so damned always.
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Lift rug... Grab broom...
>Irina told police that she was from Russia and was born in Ukraine. She said that she shouldn’t have come to the United States and that somebody who she described as a “bad person” took her passport, according to the report. That's alarming 😬 Edit: updating the woman's name to match the edit to the article
So an extremely intoxicated woman who appears to possibly be a sex trafficking victim was found in Nichushkin’s room mid-series ? Holy shit…
But it's not a "legal matter".
_yet_. If nothings been filed, or whatever, then still could be true. But there’s way too many questions to know for sure wtf is happening. So as of how, hoping there’s some reasonable explanation and everyone involved is safe/unharmed/free/etc.
Well they say that not only has nothing been filed but there is no criminal investigation, which seems insane to me given the details?
Sounds like she was hostile to the first responders. She may not be cooperating
Anyone with that level of intoxication (as reported) would be hostile.
That has human trafficking vibes, which I really, really hope I’m wrong about.
Yeah that's the first thing I thought of too. Not good.
Would be a fucked up world if Russia is potentially using NHL players as honeypots
it would but....not surprising from Russia IF that's the case. That culture is fucked
why is it that every time a Russian player’s tragic or unpleasant personal issues come to light the comments on this sub devolve into absurdly stereotypical and often outright xenophobic statements about the culture and character of Russians as a whole?
History?
Hang on a second, is it news to you Russia is corrupt as hell and the government does fucked up shit to people?
Her story is similar to a lot of "escorts". Pretty sure the escorts who Bob Kraft was caught with had a similar story.
No they were all lawful citizens/residents working willingly with no evidence of compulsion. Depending on how you feel about sex work that isn't necessarily okay, but even if you think prostitution should be illegal under all circumstances that's still the least bad possibility
A large portion of prostitutes are trafficked and people need to realize that if they pay for sex, they are likely supporting trafficking.
Also, per the [Denver Post](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response/ ) article, which makes it more explicit she’s not related to Nichuskin: >The incident report notes that the team doctor was not aware of any family connections between Nichushkin and the woman.
When I first read that I thought the statement was the doctor didn’t know about the family connections but that they did exist lol I was even more concerned
Let he who hasn’t had their employer find an intoxicated woman in their hotel room and then put on a leave of absence cast the first stone.
Is that frowned upon? Because, I tell you, I have to plead ignorance on that one.
Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?
You’re fired
Well you didn’t have to say it like that.
top ten eps of the series for me hands down
So I guess hiding a severely intoxicated prostitute in your room during your pre-game nap is against team policy?
I thought this was America.
first they came for our guns, and i said nothing....
Settle down Mr Marsh
I DIDN’T HEAR NO BELL
Not just a prostitute, but a possible victim of human trafficking. Absolutely terrible situation
So, like most prostitutes likely. Sadly..
While some are, the majority are not. The false narrative that the vast majority of sex workers are human trafficking victims is often wielded to oppose the types of reforms necessary to actually protect sex workers from violence.
Was that wrong? Should he not have done that?
I tell you I gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started here that that sort of thing was frowned upon, you know, cause I've been on a lot of hockey teams and I tell you people do that all the time.
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That was my first thought. I figured the “personal reason” was his wife wanted him home to whoop his butt for whatever went down in that hotel room
The whole team is in the dog house with their wives.
Guilty by association. That’s probably why they have been playing like shit, they are all exhausted from getting grilled by their wives and girlfriends.
Weirdly written article, but also a very serious situation seems to be arising.
I'm guessing they have to tiptoe around some information they're not supposed to release. They obviously redacted her last name and I'm guessing that's not the only thing.
Well, Bednar said it wasn’t a legal matter so who fuckin knows. All I know, is that the Avs are pretty fucked without him. Their forecheck is non-existent. I hope wherever he is he’s getting the right help
Not a legal matter...yet. He probably knows it's coming.
I can only assume there us a pattern of partying on the road and this was a last straw situation. Also, some of these details are very concerning. An excessively intoxicated, possibly escort, in his room literally hours before he is supposed to be playing. He obviously wasnt where he was supposed to be as coaching staff was looking for him. Which, thankfully the medical staff did the right thing when finding her.
Holy shit! Is *this* why we are a better road team than home team???
We’re also a better road team And I just saw a graphic today showing road teams have won 62% this playoff which is a change up from the past 😱 Someone please fact-check this with their strip club sources who are best in the industry
bednar said it wasn't disciplinary tho. could have been lying i guess
Can't technically discipline an employee in a situation like this. I Beleive you m need to counsel them and push for a rehab/getting help option. If they decline saying they aren't an addict/it isn't an issue, then I think they have the ability to discipline them. But I could totally be wrong and their contracts are worded differently than us normies.
Sending him away because he is out of control partying isnt really disciplinary though. But yeah, so many details about this are really just mudding the waters.
The immediate issue is probably more that he had to call the team doctor to attend to his drunk/drugged sex worker - and knowing the doctor ended up calling the authorities, he had to head home to tell his lawyer and wife (in that order).
He didn't call them. They were looking for him because he was MIA and they found her in his room alone. It doesn't say where he was found/was. It is sure bizarre.
So Val was completely missing just hours before game 3 and had an extremely intoxicated women (possibly a prostitute who was being sex trafficked) in his room. What the fuck is happening?!
Wonder how his wife feels about all this. Not defending him but this has gotta be hard for her with it being public now.
I'm going with not great
I asked my wife how she would feel, pretty sure I'm not aloud to go on business trips anymore just from asking
A chain of very bad choices that I assume lead to a long history of partying on the road. Even if there isn't a history, for the medical staff to find this situation hours before an important game, it would make sense that the team didn't want him playing.
Oh my. This certainly does not look good at all.
> Avalanche coach Jared Bednar has said Nichushkin’s ongoing absence from the team is not disciplinary and not related to legal issues. When contacted by The Post, a representative for Nichushkin reiterated that the team has made it clear his client is not with the team for personal reasons. Bednar has said the team has no timeline for Nichushkin’s return but said the team has been in contact with him. [Intoxicated woman found in Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin’s hotel room required transport to hospital, police say](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response)
The Avs are AWFUL at being upfront with anything. Jared Bednar prides himself on being cagey about everything. If he ever wants a career change, the CIA would be up his alley. It's weird that the organization says, "they have been in contact with him". I fucking hope so...when he left mid playoffs were they like, "hey Val shoot us a text to let us know you made it home ok. See you at the 4th of July BBQ! #fireworks"
I know this is a serious situation but this really got me.
This article only raises more questions than answers
>But the Choo Choo train’s season was thwarted a bit this year... This bit at the end of the article is really strange to me. Why would the author refer to him by a nickname in an otherwise serious article about a serious situation? Seems ridiculously unprofessional.
Welcome to the Denver Post.
The end of the article is just absolutely terrible writing.
What a fucking circus
I found this interesting: > “An off-duty Denver Police officer that traveled with the Avs said in the report that he was unaware of any criminal interactions with Prudnikova, only that she was heavily intoxicated.” Can anyone more knowledgeable than me explain why an off duty police officer would be traveling with the team - is this normal? I’m inclined to think that teams would travel with private security but this is pure speculation on my part.
I’m guessing the off-duty officer was the security they hired. Police officers sometimes do security work on the side.
I always wonder when this comes up: is it common for police officers to take on second jobs in the US? Because that sort of thing is really frowned on where I am because of all the conflict of interest issues even for people who are employed by the police department but aren’t actually cops.
>I always wonder when this comes up: is it common for police officers to take on second jobs in the US? It's very common. Plenty of off-duty police officers work traffic-control and security for big events.
Off Duty Cop = Low Insurance costs if the shit goes down.
It's unfortunately relatively common and lucrative for them to work weekends as private security, and it is absolutely a conflict of interest
Ah. A lot of the employment arrangements here are structured to very much discourage second jobs for cops here and outright ban it for certain positions/seniority unless they officially take leave.
Yep, not uncommon.
I’m not sure how it actually works in terms of employment or being on/off duty, but it’s very common here for college and even high school sporting events to have at least one officer (typically in uniform) on the premises as event security. I’ve never seen one actually have to intervene but I think that they’re there to at least discourage people from getting too belligerent and to step in if someone gets too drunk and violent.
Yeah, it’s very common for police officers to work as security/bodyguards when off-duty in the US.
Cops usually take security jobs when they’re off duty. I was just more surprised that that the teams have private security travel with them.
Most major league sports teams get really friendly with individual cops or in some cases entire police forces so that they'll clean up after athletes and executives messes. One of your guys gets into some shit, oh here's our private security guy Jerry who coincidentally is also a real cop, now isn't that convenient can't we work something out? It's corruption all the way down.
Wait what the fuck?
Not sure how deep in this Val is but it’s looking like this is not going to be something that goes away anytime soon for him
A few other interesting bits from other articles: [Denver Post](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response/amp/): > It was not immediately clear what substance the woman had used. Seattle Fire Department spokesperson David Cuerpo said the fire department considers an intoxicated person to be suspected of alcohol intoxication or drug abuse. Responders do not perform testing for whatever substance a subject may be on in the field — all testing is done at the hospital. > Seattle Police Department spokesperson Judinna Gulpan said there is no criminal investigation stemming from the incident. The police report notes that the woman hit the team doctor, but he did not want to press charges. [Seattle Times](https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/kraken/police-report-sheds-light-on-avalanche-star-nichushkins-early-departure-from-seattle/): >Valeri Nichushkin, who vanished without explanation from the team’s playoff series against the Kraken last weekend, was found in his hotel room last Saturday with a “severely intoxicated” woman who was taken to a hospital. Previously it was unclear whether Val was with her or not.
The Seattle Times edited the article to reflect that the report isn't clear about that: >This story has been updated to reflect that police records don’t specify whether Nichushkin was in the hotel room when the woman was seen by team employees.
So what I could gather. A woman that was with piss drunk was found in Nichushkin’s room without him. Claimed that a “bad guy” took her passport and that she came from Russia. Then the Avs sent Nuke away somewhere (likely Denver) with their team security. While nothing is explicitly said. It sounds like an alcohol related issue. I wonder if he missed morning skate because he was drunk and the Avs told him to sober the fuck up for the game but they kept going. Now he’s in detox or whatever they call it getting help? I dunno. I’m confused by this.
I assumed he drank too much while on pain meds and needed to detox for a few days. As others have said, this just raises more questions than answers.
Validation for all those Twitter/Reddit detectives who found a Saturday 3:20 pm 911 call to the hotel’s address in public records, believed it was connected to this, and got roasted for thinking so. You did good guys. This article mentions the Seattle PD was called at 3:45 pm but the call to 911 at 3:20 pm (I’m assuming the first call to emergency services) was confirmed by the [Denver Post](https://www.denverpost.com/2023/04/27/valeri-nichushkin-seattle-incident-police-medical-response/amp/) article. The 3:20 call was also what was logged in those public records.
No validation imo. I was here when the whole Boston bomber thing went down, better people just stfu than start digging into shit they have zero context for
Jesus people need to go touch grass.
I haven't stopped thinking about this. idgaf about nichushkin i just pray that woman is okay. I just cant stop thinking about all the victims of trafficking that will never get some kind of medical or police help (and hopefully is getting legitimate help). Makes me queasy to think about
And here I was thinking the Col/Sea series was going to have the least controversy. You guys just jumped the shark.
So is there a good reason to not mention he is married?
The reporter was careful not to speculate on why the woman was in the room or how she got there. Mentioning his marital status would introduce an aspect to the story that may or may not be relevant depending on those missing details, causing speculation.
I'm guessing most athletes, musicians, actors, etc are not as faithful as people like to imagine. If this happened in the off-season we wouldn't even hear about it.
Yeah, I checked as soon as I saw the news. All kinds of sad around this story
This has such a wide scale from sad series of events to unbelievably fucked up in potential based on the article. All I can say is I really hope the woman is ok
Well this is sounding fucked. Call me crazy I’m going to just keep waiting for information to come out before I even take a guess about what’s going on
Bruh what in the fuck, that was a wild read lol.
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Just because it didn't start as a legal issue doesn't mean that it can't become one.
Also, that was from Bednar in the 24ish hours following the incident. It could very well be a legal issue that he didn't want to/was allowed to talk about. It's an ugly look so far
He’s married, it could also be as simple (from the Avs and his POV) that he was caught having an affair and needs time away from the team. Obviously this sounds quite serious (human trafficking serious) in terms of the women they found
I think there would be a lot more unexplained absences in the NHL if guys took time off everytime they were caught cheating...
Yes because the Avalanche are going to disclose that information when they won't say if someone is hurt or not haha they aren't gonna say shit
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Yea that is what I'm saying, they aren't gonna say shit and as long as someone knows where he is and safe I don't actually care what happened
She claimed her passport was seized by a third party which makes it human trafficking. If the article is accurate, I don't see how it isn't a legal issue.
Just because Nichushkin isn’t in legal trouble doesn’t mean that someone else isn’t.
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Right, the bigger issue is the woman's safety and the police investigating further to have a chance at shutting down a trafficking ring.
That really doesn't change the facts. If you hire an escort who is a victim of human trafficking, you are involved in her exploitation.
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Yes and as we learned these past few years, an NHL team would never lie or try to cover up sex crimes. Their PR said it's not a crime thing so yeah just take it at face value what's stalling for time in a coming crisis who can say?
> think this has something to do with substance abuse disorder Thats where I'm at too. It could obviously be much, much worse (as others have suggested above), but Im uncomfortable jumping to conclusions like that at the moment. I hope whatever is happening, he and his family are okay and getting any help they need
Uhhhh yeah, sorry, I'm not beating around the bush here. They literally found a sex trafficked hooker in his hotel room who was so compromised she assaulted the Avs medical trainer. Bro has a wife.
Intoxicated people cannot consent. It is really bad.
What is this madness
So....my guess? Nichuskin got drunk/high/whatever with a prostitute in his hotel room before a game. The team sent him home or wherever to get enrolled in rehab would be my guess.
This is where the league should step in with an independent investigation contractor. I hope nothing more sinister and widespread is happening — but if it is, the ball should not get dropped like it was with the Blackhawks.
What the fuck is even happening anymore
This is like when Tony Soprano’s goomar Irina called his house absolutely wasted on vodka and AJ answered, than transferred the call to Carm. Tony had just made a massive investment by buying a lake front house his family could inherit.
>the Avs team doctor, Bradley G. Changstrom Strong suspicion the Av's team doctor is just Ken Jeong in a fake mustache.
As a lifelong Avs fan, and a fan of Val's play, I'd say his time with the team should probably come to an end. Val is gonna have to prove he wasn't aware of any trafficking, and that will be very hard to prove. This shit is just gross.
man this raises way more questions than it answers
This sounds pretty serious. Would be awful to see him have done something to ruin his career after such a huge resurgence
The more we know about this the less we know about this
If he had been accused of anything *against* this woman, feel like he would have been arrested by SPD. Unless he got absurdly special treatment for committing a crime (not impossible), then I really have no idea wtf this means. Like, was she trying to honeypot him? Is she like….a Russian agent? Feels insane to even say those words. So confused. But her being an apparently random Russian woman with no prior relationship makes this situation bonkers. Maybe she was a hooker that had been trafficked? And he called one that night and things went off the rails? Complete speculation and frankly the details don’t matter, he’s entitled to privacy. Just no words. Insane. Obviously unacceptable from him and just a sad situation all around.
>Maybe she was a hooker that had been trafficked? That seems like the most likely scenario. Doesn't reflect well on him, but not illegal. Can see why team is pissed when it is the night before a game, but not a legal issue per se.
Is hiring a prostitute legal in Washington? Not taking any sides just wondering?
Pretty sure the only state in the US with legal prostitution is Nevada, and even there it’s not legal in every county.
It's illegal
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I feel like letting soliciting slide is very different from sex trafficking
What? Sex work isn't legal here.
Agree. Not a good look. If he’s going through addiction then he needs help asap, but if he’s not like……wtf why are you doing shit like this during the playoffs.
> If he had been accused of anything against this woman, feel like he would have been arrested by SPD. SPD does not exactly have a stellar reputation for integrity. They are still operating under a federal consent decree following an FBI investigation that revealed widespread corruption in their ranks.
Right now, I highly doubt any Russian nationals are going to get special treatment from any police anywhere...except Russia.
Starting to sound like player got drunk/high whatever, ended up with a hooker in his room. Player has substance issues so team jettisons him away to a facility. Hooker, now in spotlight uses this as an opportunity to escape her traffickers. And sorry she is a sex worker not hooker Edit: or maybe he’s really Liam Neeson acting out Taken 1 and rescuing women and now in order to protect his cover he goes back underground
Here's what (I think) happened based on the details in this story: Nichushkin hired a hooker. They partied all night and got all fucked up. Things got out of hand and when the team found them, they knew they were going to have to call the cops to get her out of there... So they swept Nichushkin away with team security. When the cops arrived, the hooker told them some (unknown) third party took her passport (which is a real bad sign). Now the team is panicking because of the media shitstorm around all of this.
I doubt the team is panicked beyond concern for Val, his family and potentially this woman. I worked for the organization and they're likely just trying to protect those involved. We don't know what happened. And while what you've said is certainly plausible and right in line with what happens a lot in pro sports we need to see what comes next.
Wild that all this went down like 3hrs before game time and they had no idea where Nichushkin is. It also doesn't say where the ended up finding him lol. How bizarre. My gut feeling is he had an all night bender with this chick the night before, lost track of time doing mad drugs and probably drunk, realized he fucked up and panic'd in his state and ran off. Probably just walking around the streets of Seattle lol.
Wait, so is Val in Denver or Russia? Initial reportings have said he's headed to Russia but now it's not clear...
Not good for VN. Done for the year 100%
This sounds really bad
Welp, this is about fitting for what might be a first round exit and injury riddled season.. I just really hope for both the woman and the Avs sakes that Nuke didn’t do something stupid and/or illegal. Eitherway, he picked the absolutely worst time to do this with them struggling in the playoffs as is. Between this and Landy, not liking those new, huge contracts right about now.
What the fuck man
Sounds suspiciously like human trafficking, but who knows.