Five former Artemi Panarin teammates have now told The Post that they have never heard of the assault allegations their former KHL coach imposed on the Rangers star winger.
Andrei Nazarov, who coached the 2011-12 Vityaz team, recently told a Russian tabloid that Panarin beat up an 18-year-old Latvian girl after a road loss in December 2011.
Maxim Sitnikov, who played just two games with Vityaz in 2011-12 but said he practiced with the active roster this season, told The Post he had never heard of a physical altercation between his teammate team and a woman in a hotel bar. Riga, Latvia.
“There was no such thing!” said Sitnikov, who now trains 12-year-olds in Yaroslavl, Russia, after The Post reached him via Facebook Messenger.
“[Artemi] Panarin is a good person, friend and teammate! [Artemi] now she is a star on a large scale and the brighter she touches, the more villains will stick to their wheels and say all sorts of nonsense! ”
The former Russian striker also played alongside Panarin in the Russian Knights of MKHL, 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 a player like that,” he said.
Sitnikov, 28, is Panarin’s last 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 the incident. .
Another teammate, Mikhail Ansin, told Russian Sports-Express on Wednesday that there was an incident in Riga (Latvia) in 2011 involving Panarin, but it did not represent the way Nazarov represented .
“Artemi didn’t beat anyone, maybe he pushed a girl a little bit, nothing more,” Ansin told Sports-Express.
Ansin also said police arrived at the team’s hotel, but that he left after determining the incident did not justify the charges. He also discussed Nazarov’s claim about police pay, noting that players did not have that kind of money at the time.
Arriving on the phone on Tuesday, Jon Mirasty called his ex-coach’s accusations of Panarin’s frankness against the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin “heavy.” Panarin has also publicly shown his support for Russian opposition Alexei Navalny recently last month.
Nazarov, who made the allegation in an interview with Russian publication Komsomolskaya Pravda, is a loyalist of Putin and has called for the imprisonment of Russian players in case they speak out against the country.
“I’m sure he would have felt something similar, you know, being one of the most veteran players there was,” a former Canadian winger Mirasty told The Post. “I never heard anything like that, so I was impressed. Obviously I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but if I guess so, [it didn’t happen]. And why does it come out ten years later? “
In a statement to ESPN, the KHL said it “has not been aware of or received a complaint regarding any Panarin-related incidents in December 2011.”
The league also said that if it received any complaints, it would have investigated “since we take allegations of misconduct incredibly seriously,” according to ESPN.
Kip Brennan, a Canadian winger who spent parts of five seasons in the NHL and played three games with the Islanders in 2007-08, told The Post via Facebook messenger that he “did not know or feel that anything like this would ever happen. “.
“He was a great guy, he was fun in the locker room,” Brennan said. “He always worked his English with the American boys and was a very talented young player.”
Two other former Vityaz teammates, who asked to remain anonymous, agreed with Mirasty and Brennan’s stances on the situation.