Colorado Avalanche: Why Reinstating Slava Voynov Would be So Bad

While defenseman Slava Voynov is unlikely to ever play for the Colorado Avalanche, his reinstatement by the NHL would be bad for all hockey fans, including in Avs Nation.

The Colorado Avalanche have made modest moves this summer, including signing a couple free agents and even prospect Martin Kaut. It sounds even like the Erik Karlsson drama has died down, at least on our end.

I’m guessing GM Joe Sakic is getting ready to head off on a nice tropical vacation, secure in the knowledge that his players are training hard for the 2018-19 season.

Meanwhile, in the NHL, a drama beyond the potential Erik Karlsson trade is being played out. The NHL is reportedly considering reinstating defenseman Slava Voynov.

Slava Voynov, the Abuser

In October 2014, LA Kings defenseman Slava Voynov and his wife, Marta, got into a fight at the team Halloween party. According to police reports, as reported in The Athletic (and multiple sources at the time), Voynov pulled off Marta’s costume glasses and stomped on them. They exited the venue still arguing. Outside, he “punched her in the left jaw with a closed fist.”

According to court documents, the fight continued when the couple returned home, and with their seven-year-old daughter in the house. Marta attested to the following happening in their home:

"Voynov “wrapped both of his hands around [Marta’s] neck and began to squeeze, making it difficult for her to breathe.” Voynov, according to the motion, “continued to choke her while repeatedly pushing her to the floor of the bedroom,” telling her to “get out,” that there would be “no more money for her,” and that she would be “gone.”"

As the argument apparently escalated, the following occurred:

"Voynov then “kicked her five or six times all over her body” and when she attempted to stand he “pushed her down directly into the bottom corner of the flat screen television that was mounted to the bedroom wall.” [Marta] sustained “a head laceration that resulted in severe bleeding” and throughout all of this “she repeatedly screamed for him to stop.”"

Neighbors attested to “terrible noises” emanating from the couple’s house. One neighbor lamented to the 911 dispatcher, “Oh my God. She’s really screaming.”

Voynov eventually took Marta to the hospital for treatment of the head laceration, which required eight stitches. At the time, she told the medical staff that this attack was not an isolated incident. She added:

"“He’s very aggressive every time. He gets tired. He gets aggressive every time. And it’s not first time. Please help me [crying]. Please at first and after this, I speak about all of this. Please help me, please.”"

All of this is on police record. What’s more, the police report indicated that Marta’s injuries and the scene of the crime — the house — corroborated her story.

Slava Voynov pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of corporal injury to a spouse. As a result, he served under two months in jail. ICE took him into custody, but he agreed to return to Russia rather than be deported. He was meant to serve three years of probation.

Meanwhile, the NHL immediately suspended him and even blocked him from playing in the 2016 World Cup. The LA Kings terminated his contract.

He has played in the KHL the last three years and won a gold medal with the Russian athletes at the 2018 Olympic Games.

On Monday, Voynov had the misdemeanor dismissed in a Los Angeles court. He has already met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman with the intent of getting reinstated by the NHL.

Slava Voynov, the Russian

I hope that, since the majority of Mile High Sticking’s readers are North American, the above incident horrifies you. Any regular Joe commits those crimes, and it’s not even a question that he’s an awful human being.

And Voynov is not a regular Joe — he’s a 6-foot, 200-pound professional hockey player, meaning it’s 200 pounds of muscle accustomed to physicality. Marta Voynov is… considerably smaller. No question but that she was unable to protect herself against a bigger, much stronger individual.

Technically, Slava Voynov “paid his debt to society” in that he served the time of a “misdemeanor charge of corporal injury to a spouse” and “served” three years of probation.

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Here’s the thing, though: Slava Voynov “served” those three years in Russia. And Russia takes a different view of domestic abuse than here in North America. Here, a man slaps a woman, that’s not ok under any circumstances. There, a man slaps a woman, it’s considered a preservation of “traditional and conservative values.” Culturally, it’s felt that what happens in the family should stay in the family.

Indeed, as reported by BBC, the State Duma signed a bill that decriminalizes some forms of domestic abuse. Specifically, a man can hit anyone in his family. If the police are called and it’s his first charge — and the victim didn’t end up hospitalized — he’ll pay a fine rather than serve jail time.

There are even instances when the person getting hit has to pay the fine, or that it gets taken out of the joint bank account. Those are family values in Russia.

This is the culture where Slava Voynov supposedly served the terms of his American probation. I hope I don’t have to point out those aren’t the same family values we have here. And there’s no way spending time in such an atmosphere fulfills the terms of his probation.

Also, you know, this:

That said, technically the courts erred on his side. They dismissed the charges. The first hurdle is cleared. Slava Voynov is cleared of any criminal record, so he can apply for a work visa and be reinstated in the NHL.

And now it falls into the NHL’s lap to take a stand on this issue. It’s up to the NHL to declare domestic abusers are not welcome in the best league in the world.

Because, for me, for all women, the stakes are too high for the NHL to do anything else.

Slava Voynov and the Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche’s defensive stable is pretty set. They have their four cornerstones (Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, Nikita Zadorov and Sam Girard) and a host of ancillary players, such as Mark Barberio and Anton Lindholm, to fill out the depth. Plus, Colorado signed veteran presence in free agency by getting 29-year-old Ian Cole under contract.

In other words, I feel reasonably certain the Avalanche wouldn’t even make a play for the 28-year-old Voynov, who’s three years out of NHL practice.

I don’t like the rationale that the only reason Colorado wouldn’t be in on Voynov is they don’t really have a need for him. I’d feel better if the team took an ethical stance, but they wouldn’t do so openly. I’m pragmatic enough to know that.

That said, Slava Voynov’s being in the NHL still presents an ethical dilemma in my Avs fandom. Because while he won’t play for my team, he will play against my team. Two to five times a season the Colorado Avalanche will line up against the team that eventually employs Voynov.

A particularly spiteful section of hockey fans think it would be great for Voynov to play against some of the big, mean players in the NHL because said players will beat him and otherwise make his life miserable because of what he did to this wife.

Here’s the problem — no, they probably won’t. They’ll hound and confront Voynov because he’s a threat to their team’s winning. They likely will not hound him any harder than they do Erik Karlsson or P.K. Subban.

So, I’ll sit there and watch a couple of men I tremendously respect, Erik Johnson and Gabriel Landeskog, do nothing especially painful to Voynov in retaliation for the defenseman beating his wife horribly.

They won’t even drop gloves against domestic abuse like they would against Sam Girard abuse:

Or because Mikko Koivu is so annoying:

I’m getting a little flippant there deliberately. Because when Voynov’s team plays my Colorado Avalanche, it will be an ugly reminder that players I admire would much rather maintain the status quo than take a stand. They, like the NHL, can take the stance that what happens outside the arena is none of their business.

Sounds a little like what happens in the family, stays in the family.

This conundrum would be played out across 30 fandoms. As for the 31st — the team that actually employs Voynov — the situation is even worse. Those fans have to watch their admired players accept Voynov as a teammate.

All of this publicly normalizes domestic abuse on women. Ultimately, it conveys the message that  hockey isn’t for everyone — it’s for cis-het white males. The rest of us are just tolerated.

Side note: I don’t mention Nikita Zadorov as a potential hit man because he’s Russian. I’m not saying that gives him a free pass, but I acknowledge it would make the issue less prevalent in his mind.

Slava Voynov and Hockey Fans

The above-mentioned scenario, thinking NHL players would target Slava Voynov specifially — believe it or not, it’s the male hockey fandom coming up with that suggestion:

Even the male fans who didn’t necessarily take such a blood-thirsty approach to the situation expressed disdain:

There are a few male hockey fans who want to let bygones be bygones:

Needless to say, female hockey fans aren’t on the bygones train:

What I also appreciate is multiple sports sites taking a stance against Slava Voynov:

Likewise, according to Eliotte Friedman on Sportsnet, though teams are interested in a talented, right-shooting defenseman, they’re not willing to go on-record at this time “because of the sensitivity.”

Next: Evaluating the Hockey is for Everyone Initiative

This one feels like it should be a no-brainer.  Is Slava Voynov talented and skilled? Yes. However, that player is a powder keg. He chose to let his emotions run rampant and to prey on someone smaller and weaker than him. In our culture, that’s called domestic violence.

In his culture, that’s called family values. And that distinction makes this whole situation easy. No one is saying Slava Voynov can’t make a career out of playing hockey — he’s already shown he can do so by playing in the KHL.

Instead, it’s up to the NHL to take a stance. That stance needs to be that rehabilitation for heinous crimes such as domestic violence needs to more significant than kicking it in your home country making millions while you bide your time to return to the NHL.

It does, in fact, have to be a banning of playing in the NHL. 50% of the population is female. At a certain point, if the NHL wants to actually grow, it needs to stop alienating that 50%. And keeping one player out of the league can help accomplish that.