Here's The Athletic article...
New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin and Madison Square Garden Sports, the company that owns the team, paid financial settlements to a Rangers employee last year after she alleged that Panarin sexually assaulted her, according to an NHL source who reviewed the settlements and three others briefed about them.
That woman left the organization in August 2024 upon reaching the agreements, which included non-disclosure and no admission of wrongdoing clauses. One settlement agreement was reached with Panarin and another was with MSG Sports. Several people in the organization were aware of the agreements and the circumstances surrounding her departure, and some of those individuals spoke to The Athletic on the condition that their identity not be disclosed because they still work in hockey.
The alleged assault occurred in December 2023 during a Rangers road trip, according to two Rangers sources briefed about the allegation. Panarin and the woman, who was a regular part of the team’s travelling party, were at a post-game gathering at a hotel with about a dozen other players and staff members. Panarin allegedly took her phone and said he would only give it back if she retrieved it from his hotel room, the sources said. When she went to his hotel room to retrieve her device, Panarin pinned her down on the bed. She pushed him off, retrieved her phone and left the room.
Neither Panarin nor his agent responded to a request seeking comment. An MSG Sports spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “The matter has been resolved.” The woman — The Athletic does not typically identify alleged victims of sexual misconduct without their consent — said only: “The matter has been resolved.”
The NHL wrote in an email: “The Club retained an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which the League was fully apprised of. We consider the matter closed.”
There is no record of the woman reporting the incident to law enforcement. She also did not immediately alert the team. But about three months after the alleged sexual assault, she informed the team as part of an investigation into a separate incident. The team learned that the woman, whose anxiety around airplane travel was well known among team members, had shared her anti-anxiety medicine with a player who had the same issue. She was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of that investigation.
The female employee felt she was treated unfairly, according to team sources, and she then informed the team about the alleged assault.
While the woman was still on leave, an executive for MSG Sports convened a virtual meeting that included multiple Rangers office staff members and a human resources representative. Attendees were told not to talk to people about the woman’s situation, according to multiple people on the call. The attorney “completely reamed us out,” according to one attendee, because people were openly talking about the woman’s absence.
One person who worked for the Rangers at the time the woman was placed on leave said the suddenness of the woman’s exit made it a topic of conversation within the organization: “It’s not a secret at all anytime someone vanishes.”
In August, MSG and Panarin reached settlement agreements with the woman, and her employment with the team ended.
At the time of the woman’s disclosure, Panarin led the team with 43 goals and 102 points and was in contention for the Hart Trophy, awarded to the NHL’s most valuable player to his team. The 33-year-old Korkino, Russia native has led the team in scoring each year since joining the club as a free agent in 2019.
The league and Rangers declined to say whether Panarin was subject to any discipline.
In February 2021, Panarin took a leave of absence from the team for personal reasons following claims printed in a Russian newspaper that he was involved in a physical altercation with a woman in Latvia in 2021. The Rangers denied the allegations, calling them an “intimidation tactic” used against him in response to his comments on Russian politics.
On Wednesday, the Rangers announced that Panarin was named the team’s MVP for the 2024-25 season.
