SEATTLE — Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin’s entrance in the NHL Player Assistance Program marks the latest in a series of off-ice episodes involving him that began in a downtown Seattle hotel room last spring. You’ll remember Nichushkin vanished without explanation from a first-round playoff series between the Kraken and Avalanche after being whisked out of the Four Seasons Hotel by team security personnel hours before Game 3 on April 22. Avalanche officials were tight-lipped, but public-disclosure records released sporadically to The Seattle Times shed unflattering light over wha…
