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

Recently released police CCTV footage raises questions about the mysterious absence of Colorado Avalanche Valeri Nichushkin from an April 22 playoff game in Seattle after an unidentified and allegedly intoxicated woman was taken from his hotel room and placed in an ambulance.

It was previously reported that police responded to a crisis call at the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle at 3:44 p.m. on April 22, shortly before the Avalanche fired Russian-born Nichushkin from the team for “personal reasons.”

Then, in early May, the Seattle Times reported on a 911 call resulting from the incident, in which an unknown caller said a woman was suspected of “consumption of alcohol to excess or having something mixed in a drink.” That call was made at 3:20 p.m. — reportedly as Avalanche players boarded a team bus for Game 3 of their playoff series with the Seattle Kraken.

Now, following a 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 is interrogated by police via Russia, as is team doctor Dr. Bradley Changstrom.

“We tried to get her out of the room,” Changstrom told an officer. And she was very obviously drunk. Very clear, I couldn’t send her in an Uber because of her safety.”

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

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

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

Spokesmen for the team did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

Changstrom told police the unidentified woman had been in Nichushkin’s hotel room or outside his door for “two hours” before team personnel took her to the lobby to wait for first responders. He then says he cannot explain the events of the past “12 hours” or how long the woman was in the room with Nichushkin.

It is unclear why the woman was removed from the room by team personnel when she was in medical distress, as alleged in the previously reported 911 call.

At one point, Changstrom told officers that he and Todd Fuller, a member of the Avalanche security team, were in the hotel room with the woman who “tried to undress her,” but she resisted their help and eventually one of them hit in the arm.

Changstrom denied any crime had taken place in the hotel room, then told an officer that Nichushkin was “taken away for his own health and safety stuff.”

The Kraken eventually won the series in the first round in seven games, while Nichushkin stayed away from the Avalanche.

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

Fuller — a former Denver cop, according to the Seattle Times — is seen on camera telling a cop that the incident was “more of a withdrawal issue.”

The woman was occasionally belligerent as she was taken into the ambulance

Officers responded to a call about a drunk woman in Nichushkin’s hotel room

Changstrom (right) denied that a crime had taken place in the hotel room

It’s unclear if Nichushkin is in a relationship, but he was seen celebrating the team’s victory in the 2022 Stanley Cup at a parade in Denver, along with a young woman (pictured)

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

She claims that a man at the hotel had taken her passport and accuses first responders of being bribed to get her out of the hotel.

The woman remains unknown.

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