jason grimsley and nhl

Jason Grimsley And The NHL

One story the NHL is putting out in the media for public relations

purposes is that the NHL administered 1406 drug tests this season and

found zero violations. They want to show this as evidence that the NHL

is drug free. I think it is more likely evidence that the NHL drug

testing is not very strong.

In pre-Olympic drug tests, Bryan Berard tested positive for steroids

and Jose Theodore tested positive for the steroid masking agents in

Propecia (a hair restoration drug). It is almost certain that Theodore

was using Propecia to mask his baldness and not any steroid use. Since

these tests were not tests administered by the NHL, the NHL CBA says

there is nothing that can be done to punish these players. These tests

do not count among the 0 for 1406 record the NHL has. Yet they draw a

lot of questions about the NHL mark. It appears that there were

players in the NHL who were taking substances that could be found with

a better drug testing system, the NHL failed to find any.

There are several problems with the NHL drug testing system. First it

tests for a very limited number of drugs (steroids). It does not test

for stimulants that are banned by the Olympic Committee, and are

believed to be a much bigger problem in the NHL (ie Sudafed). It does

not test for steroid masking agents. Thus it is very possible that

there are players taking steroids and masking them. It does not test

outside of competition. Thus a player can take steroids while training

in the off season as long as they stop for the regular season. If

there is overwhelming evidence that a player took steroids, but the

evidence does not come in the form of an NHL administered drug test,

nothing can be done about it. See for example the case of Bryan

Berard.

As a case in point, let's look at baseball player Jason Grimsley.

Grimsley was a pitcher with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Grimsley has

been involved in an American federal investigation on steroids. His

house was searched for six hours Tuesday. Grimsley had a package

containing two kits of human growth hormone intercepted by authorities

that was sent to his home in April. He has admitted to steroid use and

claims it is a rampant problem in baseball. He is cooperating with US

agents in their steroid investigation. He has NOT failed a baseball

drug test. He has been released by the Arizona Diamondbacks and

suspended for 50 games by major league baseball. According the NHL's

drug testing rules, unless he failed an NHL administered drug test,

there is nothing they could do to him. There is nothing the NHL could

do if they had a case like that of Jason Grimsley.

Here is a TSN story on Jason Grimsley's situation.

The fact the NHL has found zero drug users in its testing and other

agencies have found some positive tests among NHL players implies that

there are some performance enhancing drug users to be found but the

weak drug testing is not finding them. I do not believe hockey has the

same level of drug use as baseball, but I do not believe that it is

entirely non-existent either. It would raise the credibility of the

NHL's claims that the league is relatively clean and they are actively

trying to keep it that way if we had an occasional positive drug test