The Sidelines : NHL Reinstates Oilers’ Fuhr

Edmonton goaltender Grant Fuhr, suspended for one year by the NHL last September for drug use, was reinstated today by league President John Ziegler.

Fuhr will be eligible to return to the Oilers on Feb. 18 after having served about five months of the suspension.

Fuhr admitted last summer to abusing “a substance” only after the Edmonton Journal confronted him with evidence about his cocaine use that had been confirmed by his ex-wife, Corrine, and other sources.

Ziegler suspended Fuhr after a meeting with the goaltender, his lawyer and Oilers president Glen Sather, at which Fuhr said he had not used drugs for more than a year.

The order allowed the suspension to be commuted if the Oilers appealed before Feb. 1 and Fuhr demonstrated that he “did not conduct himself in a manner to have caused dishonor or prejudice to the league.”

Ziegler said in a statement that “the information provided to me is most convincing that Mr. Fuhr has met the conditions for reinstatement.”