Five former Artemi Panarin teammates have now told the Post that they have never heard of the assault charges against the Rangers star by his 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 woman after a roadside crash in December 2011.
Maxim Sitnikov, who played just two games with Vityaz in 2011-12, but said he used to practice with the active squad during that season, told the Post that he had never heard of a physical fight between his teammate and a woman in one hotel bar in Riga, Latvia.
“There was no such thing!” said Sitnikov, who now trains 12-year-old boys in Yaroslavl, Russia, after The Post reached him via Facebook Messenger.
“[Artemi] Panarin is a good person, friend and teammate! [Artemi] now he is a large-scale star and the brighter he plays, the more the villains will put sticks on his wheels and say all sorts of nonsense! “
The former Russian striker also played alongside Panarin on MKHL’s Russian Knights, which appears to be the Vityaz farm team.
Sitnikov, who retired from hockey due to a shoulder injury, said people like Panarin “can be counted on with one hand”.
“The New York Rangers are very lucky to have such a player,” he said.
Sitnikov, 28, is Panarin’s most recent former teammate during the 2011-12 KHL season, when Nazarov claims the alleged altercation occurred, to tell the Post that he had not heard of such an incident.
Another teammate, Mikhail Ansin, told the Russian Sports-Express agency on Wednesday that there was an incident in Riga, Latvia in 2011, involving Panarin, but it did not go the way Nazarov portrayed it.
“Artemi didn’t hit anyone, maybe he pushed a girl a little bit, nothing more,” Ansin told Sports-Express.
Ansin also said the police went to the team’s hotel, but left after determining that the incident did not justify charges. He also contested Nazarov’s claim that the police were paid, noting that the players did not have that kind of money at the time.
Contacted by phone on Tuesday, Jon Mirasty called the accusations of his former coach “dubious” after Panarin’s frankness against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. Panarin also publicly demonstrated his support for Russian opposition Alexei Navalny last month.
Nazarov, who made the claim in an interview with Russian publication Komsomolskaya Pravda, is loyal to Putin and called for Russian players to be arrested if they spoke out against the country.
“I’m sure I would have heard something like that, you know, being one of the oldest and oldest players there,” said Mirasty, a former Canadian winger to The Post. “I never heard anything like it, so I was kind of impressed. I’m obviously not saying it didn’t happen, but if I was to guess, [it didn’t happen]. And why will it be released 10 years later? “
In a statement to ESPN, the KHL said it “was not aware of or received a complaint regarding any incident involving Panarin in December 2011.”
The league also said that if it received any complaints, it would have investigated “since we take any 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 for the Islanders in 2007-08, told The Post via Facebook Messenger that he “didn’t know or knew that something like this had happened”.
“He was a great guy, he was hilarious in the locker room,” said Brennan. “He always worked English with the guys from North America and was a very talented young player.”
Two other former Vityaz teammates, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed with Mirasty and Brennan’s views on the situation.