NHL: Police footage shows ‘intoxicated’ woman being questioned at Valeri Nichushkin’s Seattle hotel

Newly released police body camera footage is raising questions about Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin’s mysterious absence from an April 22 playoff game in Seattle after an unidentified and allegedly intoxicated woman was removed from his hotel room and placed into an ambulance.

It was previously reported that police responded to a crisis call at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle at 3:44pm on April 22, shortly before the Avalanche excused the Russian-born Nichushkin from the team due to ‘personal reasons.’

Then, in early May, the Seattle Times reported about a 911 call stemming from the incident, in which an unidentified caller said a woman was suspected to have ‘OD’d on alcohol potentially or something got mixed in a drink.’ That call was made at 3:20pm – reportedly as Avalanche players were boarding a team bus for Game 3 of their playoff series with the Seattle Kraken.

Now, following a public-disclosure request from the Seattle Times, the Seattle Police Department released more than 40 minutes of footage from the Four Seasons Hotel on April 22. Nichushkin is notably absent from the footage, but a woman claiming to be from Ukraine, by way of Russia, is heard being questioned by police, as is team physician Dr. Bradley Changstrom. 

‘We were trying to get her out of the room,’ Changstrom told one officer. ‘And she was very clearly intoxicated. Very clearly, I could not send her in an Uber due to her safety.’

Avalanche team physician Dr. Bradley Changstrom (left) is seen talking with police on April 22

The woman is blurred in the police footage, but can be heard saying she is from Ukraine 

The footage shows Changstrom telling officers that team staff worked to separate the woman from Nichushkin, who had left scene in the company of Avalanche security.

Team spokespeople did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

Changstrom told police that the unidentified woman had been either inside Nichushkin’s hotel room or standing outside his door for up ‘two hours’ before team personnel brought her to the lobby to wait for first responders. He then says that he cannot explain the events of the previous ’12 hours’ or how long the woman was in the room with Nichushkin.

It’s unclear why the woman was moved from the room by team personnel if she was in medical distress, as was claimed in the previously reported 911 call.

At one point Changstrom told officers that he and Avalanche security team member Todd Fuller were in the hotel room with the woman ‘trying to get clothes on her,’ but that she resisted their help and ultimately hit one of them in the arm.

Changstrom denied that any crime had taken place inside the hotel room, and went on to tell an officer that Nichushkin was ‘taken away for his own health and safety stuff.’

The Kraken ultimately won the first-round series in seven games, while Nichushkin remained away from the Avalanche.

The specific substance or substances ingested by the woman remain unclear, as does her identity and connection, if any, to Nichushkin.

Fuller – a former Denver cop, according to the Seattle Times – is seen on camera telling one officer that the incident was ‘more of a detox issue.’

The woman was occasionally combative while being taken into the ambulance 

Officers responded to a call concerning an intoxicated woman in Nichushkin’s hotel room 

Changstrom (right) denied that any crime had taken place inside the hotel room

The woman told officers that she was born in Ukraine, but came to the US as a college student from Russia. At one point she seemed to indicate that she was enrolled at the University of Arizona.

She claims that a man inside the hotel had taken her passport, and accuses first responders of being bribed to take her away from the hotel.

The woman remains unidentified.

It’s unclear if Nichushkin is involved romantically with anyone. Instagram photos show him celebrating the team’s 2022 Stanley Cup title with a young woman,