The New York Rangers have missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2021. They started on the wrong foot and never surged into postseason contention. With the season over, a troubling story has broken about their star player. Rangers winger Artemi Panarin allegedly committed sexual assault against a team employee during the 2023-24 season. The Athletic's Katie Strang broke the news Thursday morning.

“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,” Strang reported.

“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.”

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The woman reported the incident about three months afterward, only when an investigation was launched into her sharing anti-anxiety medication with a player. Once she went on leave, people around the organization started talking about the incident. In August, Panarin and MSG reached separate agreements with the victim, and her time with the team ended.

Panarin and the Rangers did not respond to Strang's request for comment. Their 2024-25 season ends Thursday against the Lightning.