The Colorado Avalanche will be without Valeri Nichushkin for the next few weeks. The forward was admitted to the joint assistance program of the NHL and the Players’ Association.
No details have filtered out on the reasons which led to this decision.
Nichushkin, 28, had 42 points in 40 games this season and played nearly 22 minutes per game. He missed Saturday’s game in Toronto, but the team then indicated he was ill.
He is the second member of the Avalanche in several weeks to use the aid program. Defender Samuel Girard also used it, at the end of November, to treat problems of anxiety and depression which had led to problematic alcohol consumption, he explained in a press release.
Nichushkin, choice of 1er tour in 2013, is in his fifth season in Colorado. Last spring, he was involved in a strange story, denied by his agent, of a heavily intoxicated woman in his hotel room during the playoffs.
The Avalanche faces the Canadiens on Monday evening at the Bell Centre.