This just in, Katie Strang of the Athletic has published a bombshell report on the New York Rangers’ apparent payment of “hush money” to a former female employee after she made sexual assault allegations against star player Artemi Panarin.

According to Strang’s sources, the Rangers paid out a financial settlement to the former employee after she made allegations that Panarin attempted to sexually assault her in a hotel room on a team trip. The woman was employed by the team at the time and travelled with the team on the road.

More from Strang:

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.

Interestingly enough, these allegations did not come to the forefront until after this woman was under investigation by the team for sharing medications with a player.

More from Strang:

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.

You may recall that the Rangers released a bizarre policy earlier this year that stipulated that players and team employees could not associate outside of business and that the Rangers social media team was no longer permitted to travel with the team.

Well… do the math.

We now can infer what those policy changes were in response to.

The Rangers, Panarin and the NHL all declined to provide further comment to Strang for publication, with all three parties simply stating: “The matter has been resolved.”