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Five former Artemi Panarin teammates have now told the Post they had never heard of the assault allegations made against the Rangers star winger by their former KHL coach.
Andrei Nazarov, who coached the 2011-12 Vityaz team, recently told a Russian tabloid that Panarin beat an 18-year-old Latvian girl following a road loss in December 2011.
Maxim Sitnikov, who only appeared in two games for Vityaz in 2011-12 but said he trained frequently with the active roster during this season, told the Post he had never heard of of a physical altercation between his teammate and a woman at a hotel bar in Riga, Latvia.
“There was nothing like it!” Sitnikov, who now coaches 12-year-olds in Yaroslavl, Russia, said after The Post contacted him via Facebook Messenger.
“[Artemi] Panarin is a great person, friend and teammate! [Artemi] is now a star of a full scale level and the more brilliant he plays, the more baddies will put spades in his wheels and say all kinds of nonsense!
The former Russian striker also played alongside Panarin on the MKHL Russian Knights, which appear to be the Vityaz farm team.
Sitnikov, who retired from hockey with a shoulder injury, said people like Panarin “can be counted with one hand.”
“The New York Rangers are very lucky to have such a player,” he said.
Sitnikov, 28, is Panarin’s last ex-teammate in the 2011-12 KHL season, when Nazarov claims the alleged altercation occurred, telling the Post he had not heard of of such an incident.
Another teammate, Mikhail Ansin, told Russian media outlet Sports-Express on Wednesday that there was an incident in Riga, Latvia in 2011 involving Panarin, but it did not go as Nazarov described it. .
“Artemi didn’t beat anyone, maybe pushed a girl a bit, nothing more,” Ansin told Sports-Express.
Ansin also said police went to the team’s hotel, but left after determining that the incident did not warrant prosecution. He also took issue with Nazarov’s claim that the police were paid, noting that players did not have that type of money at the time.
Reached by telephone on Tuesday, Jon Mirasty described the accusations of his former trainer as “shady” following Panarin’s outspokenness against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Panarin also publicly showed his support for Russian opposition Alexei Navalny as recently as last month.
Nazarov, who made the allegation in an interview with Russian publication Komsomolskaya Pravda, is a Putin loyalist and has called for Russian players to be jailed if they denounce the country.
“I’m pretty sure I would have heard something like that, you know, being one of the oldest veteran players out there,” Mirasty, a former Canadian winger, told The Post. “I’ve never heard anything like it, so I was blown away. I’m obviously not saying it didn’t happen, but if I had to guess, [it didn’t happen]. And why is it released 10 years later? “
In a statement to ESPN, KHL said it “had neither known nor received any complaint regarding an incident involving Panarin in December 2011.”
The league also said if it had received a complaint it would have investigated “because we take all allegations of misconduct incredibly seriously,” according to ESPN.
Kip Brennan, a Canadian winger who spent part of five seasons in the NHL and played three games with the Islanders in 2007-08, told the Post via Facebook Messenger that he “didn’t know or didn’t hear that something like that had happened.
“He was a great guy, he was hilarious in the locker room,” said Brennan. “He always worked his English with the North American guys and was a very talented young player.
Two other former Vityaz teammates, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed with Mirasty and Brennan’s positions on the situation.
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