Rangers star Artemi Panarin and team owner MSG Sports paid settlements to a woman accusing the forward of sexual assault, The Athletic reported Thursday.
A company representative did not deny the report. “The matter has been resolved,” the spokesperson told Front Office Sports.
The pair of settlements include nondisclosure agreements and no admission of wrongdoing by the athlete or the company, according to The Athletic. The deals were agreed to in 2024 after the woman, a former Rangers employee, said that Panarin assaulted her on a Dec. 2023 road trip. She left the company in August after settling with Panarin and ownership.
She reported the 2023 incident after the team investigated her sharing anti-anxiety medication with another player on a flight, The Athletic reported.
News of the settlement comes just a day after the Rangers announced 33-year-old Panarin as the team’s 2024–25 season MVP as well as the recipient of the Good Guy Award, voted on by local media.
Panarin, who leads the Rangers with 89 points this season upon going into the team’s final game, has been subject of controversy in the past.
In February 2021, Panarin took a personal leave of absence following allegations of assaulting an 18-year-old woman in Latvia. Those allegations, which Panarin denied, came out 10 years after the alleged incident and were printed in a Russian newspaper; Panarin and the Rangers said that the allegations were pushed by the Russian government because of Panarin’s criticism of Vladimir Putin.
Panarin is one of a small handful of prominent Russian athletes who have criticized Putin. His camp suggested the accusations were fabricated and called them an “intimidation tactic” as a result of his support for opposition leader Alexi Navalny, who died in February 2024.
An NHL spokesperson told FOS, “The Club retained an outside law firm to conduct an independent investigation, which the League was fully apprised of. We consider the matter closed.”
Rangers head coach Peter Laviolette did not give any indication Thursday morning whether Panarin would play in the team’s season finale at MSG.
