NHL

Did Habs request vodka, women from mobster?

NHLPA joins in trying to quell Canadiens' off-ice problem

Keith Srakocic / AP

The Canadiens' Andrei Kostitsyn, left, reportedly has ties to an organized crime figure in Montreal.

updated 1:00 a.m. ET Feb. 22, 2009

With word of Montreal Canadiens players having been acquainted with a reputed Montreal crime figure, NHL Players' Association chief Paul Kelly is taking steps to stress the union's message on avoiding shady characters.

Kelly spoke to CBC television during Saturday's broadcast for Hockey Day in Canada, on which all six Canadian teams are in action in three games played in Canada.

"I think it is a case of people getting too close to the players, particularly young players who have a lot of money and especially those who are from other countries (and) are vulnerable to people to prey on them and get close to them, the team," Kelly told CBC.

Kelly noted moves by the union to make players aware of the dangers of developing ties to people outside the NHL.

"It's something that we — the players' association and the NHL — spend a fair amount of time talking to teams, and hopefully we can use this as a positive going forward," Kelly said.

"I think we've seen the worst of it in Montreal and hopefully now (the Canadiens) have bottomed out, can turn the corner and start winning some hockey games."

The Canadiens spent Friday stomping out fires surrounding reports that three players — brothers Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn and Roman Hamrlik — known to have associated with Pasquale Manigola.

Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey told reporters on Friday the team is concerned by the reports and was working to resolve the problem. He met with his players Friday to review security guidelines.

The team has not taken punitive action.

When reporters were allowed to talk to Canadiens players, Andrei Kostitsyn dismissed any suggestion of impropriety, saying: "I know (Mangiola), but I don't know anything about him," the Toronto Globe & Mail newspaper reported.

Sergei Kostitsyn was sent to the Habs' AHL affiliate in Hamilton earlier in the week. He told reporters there he hadn't seen the reports from Montreal and had no further comment.

After Hamilton's game on Friday, the Toronto Sun reports, he refused to answer questions regarding the ongoing police investigation — at one point asking, "What's going on off the ice?" — but did say he is devoting all of his energy to getting back to the NHL as soon as possible.

"When I'm playing hockey I don't think about what happens off the ice," Kostitsyn said. "I'm trying to focus on the hockey game. That's it."

Mangiola was among 55 people arrested in a police crackdown on groups trafficking drugs in the Montreal and Ottawa areas, CBC.ca reported.

The Canadian media outlet also reported the Kostitsyn brothers allegedly made calls to Manigola, requesting vodka, women and luxury cars while the players were at local restaurants and bars.

Hamrlik also is allegedly linked to Mangiola. None of the players have been accused of any criminal involvement with Mangiola, the French-language Montreal newspaper La Presse reported.

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