MONTREAL -- Former Montreal Canadiens defenceman Andrei Markov has been suspended for a year and a half by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) for administrative reasons.
This is what the Russian website championat.com reported on Monday, specifying that the sanctions were imposed on the former Russian hockey player because he had failed to notify RUSADA of his retirement in an official letter.
Thus, since Markov was still considered an active player in the KHL, he had to submit to doping tests, which he failed to do, resulting in the sanctions -- even though he didn't actually fail a doping test.
"I didn't know. Nobody told me," he told Match TV, as quoted by the website.
The 42-year-old Markov accepted an assistant coaching position for the KHL team HC Vityaz in May.
Markov has 119 goals and 453 assists in 990 career NHL games, all with the Habs. He also had five goals and 27 assists in 89 playoff games with the Tricolore, but never won a Stanley Cup.
He was selected in the sixth round, 162nd overall, by the bleu-blanc-rouge in the 1998 NHL draft.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 12, 2021.
