The International Ice Hockey Federation has officially suspended Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov from international play for four years after he tested positive for cocaine at the 2019 IIHF World Championship back in May of this year, according to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan.
The IIHF announced the suspension earlier today and said that Kuznetsov “didn’t require the analysis of his B-sample and was provisionally suspended on 13th June 2019.”
Kuznetsov, 27, will be eligible to return on June 12th 2023, and is currently under contract with the Capitals until 2024-2025 season.
Kuznetsov made headline when a now-deleted video surfaced in May that showed him sitting in a hotel room near lines of a white, powdery substance.
Kuznetsov has denied ever taking drugs.
The National Hockey League (NHL) launched their own investigation, albeit brief.
“While we certainly do not condone or endorse some of the decisions he made on the night in question, Mr. Kuznetsov’s account of the events that transpired aligns with other information we have been able to gather, and we have found no basis to question his representations with respect to what did — and did not — occur,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly’s said in an official statement.