Russian hockey player Maxim Rybin has tested positive for a banned substance, the country's anti-doping agency told RIA Novosti on Sunday.
It is the second doping scandal to taint the KHL this month after Avangard Omsk's Anton Belov was suspended midway through the Gagarin Cup final series after failing a drugs test.
Rybin is a 30-year-old forward for SKA St. Petersburg who was a fifth-round draft pick for the Anaheim Mighty Ducks in 1999.
Russia's doping control body RUSADA confirmed media reports that he had tested positive, but gave no further details.
"The case of Maxim Rybin is at the investigation phase," RUSADA executive director Nikita Kamaev said. "At this stage we don't name the substance found."
The investigation is to last for about two weeks, said Kamaev, refusing to comment any further other than to insist on Rybin's rights being respected.
"We have to listen to all the arguments, and if we need extra tools for the investigation such as lab analyses, then the time lag increases," he said.
KHL officials could not immediately be reached.
It wasn't clear when Rybin was found to have taken forbidden drugs, though the Russian website allsportinfo.ru reported that the results of his test were known back in February, before the Russian national team's Euro Hockey Tour game against Sweden.
Rybin withdrew from that game, in Helsinki, at the last minute, citing family circumstances.
A senior coach of the Russian team, Valery Belov, told RIA Novosti at the time that "for us this was unexpected."
Rybin has not played since for the national team, but for SKA he went on to make 16 appearances, including 14 in the playoffs, racking up three goals and three assists.
He helped SKA reach the Western Conference final, where they were thrashed 4-0 in the series by eventual champion Dynamo Moscow.
The allsportinfo.ru report cited Valery Fesyuk, the executive director of the Russian Hockey Federation, as saying Rybin took a cold remedy that contained banned substances, an offense less serious than that of Avangard's Belov.
Belov tested positive after the fourth game between Avangard and Dynamo Moscow, and was immediately handed a provisional suspension. RUSADA later reported he had taken a stimulant.
