NHL’s Drug Policy Has Its Detractors

The NHL’s new drug policy, a component of the collective bargaining agreement ratified last week by the league and the players’ association, was criticized Wednesday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) and Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) as being vague in its enforcement provisions and lax in its testing procedures.

The legislators, whose Clean Sports Act of 2005 calls for Olympic-style drug testing for major North American sports leagues, said the NHL’s program for dealing with performance-enhancing substances contains “deficiencies” that “could undermine public confidence that the NHL is free of performance-enhancing drugs. ... The weaknesses in your new agreement underscore the need for federal legislation.”

Their comments, made in letters to Commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA Executive Director Bob Goodenow, were echoed by Gary Wadler, an associate professor at the New York University School of Medicine and member of the prohibited-list committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency.

“This is woefully wanting,” Wadler said in a telephone interview. “To spend 2 1/2 pages in a 600-page agreement on something as profound as this country has learned in recent months that doping in sports is, to me is not addressing this seriously.

“I’m sure there’s greater specification about their gloves, pads and the red line.”

The league and the union agreed players would be subject to up to two no-advance-notice tests per year. A first positive test will result in a 20-game suspension, a second test will bring a 60-game suspension and a third test will trigger a permanent ban that could be lifted on appeal after two years. They also said a joint committee on performance-enhancing substances, comprising an equal number of NHL and union representatives and a consulting physician, would agree on a prohibited-substances list.

The NHL and the union issued statements saying they would respond to Davis and Waxman in due course. Bernadette Mansur, NHL vice president for communications, added, “We disagree with several assertions.... “

Wadler said he had found 20 serious flaws in the policy, starting with a lack of testing on game days and during the playoffs. He also cited an absence of details concerning banned substances, masking agents, anabolic steroids, preservation of specimens, and the responsibility of trainers and other ancillary personnel.

“It looks to me almost like they said, ‘This is an outline of what we have to write a program around,’ rather than being the program,” he said. “This business is about specificity. It has to be ironclad.

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Randy Carlyle, coach of the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League, described his talks with the Mighty Ducks about their coaching job as “very preliminary.”

The former NHL defenseman said he talked once to General Manager Brian Burke and a couple of times to Bob Murray, the Ducks’ senior vice president for hockey operations. He said he hadn’t been invited to Anaheim and didn’t expect to hear much until after Saturday’s entry draft. “It’s my goal to coach in the NHL someday, but we’ll see what their level of interest is,” he said.