This is an interesting video about drug and alcohol use in the NHL. It seems like it's still a major problem, especially when it comes to painkiller abuse. Do you guys know of any players who struggle with drugs and alcohol or have been known to take it too far?
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Boogaard, Ripken come to mind
Wayne Gretzky with alcohol right now lol. Every time he’s on camera he’s absolutely blitzed
Boyd Gordon’s family had to demand a trade out of Washington for him because of all the money he was spending on cocaine.
My buddy was going to school in Windsor when Zack Kassian was the toast of the town. He has stories about Kassian at bars and the guy was a fucking animal. He used to piss on the bar right in front of everyone when he ordered drinks, stuff like that.
Good to see he’s sober, because that dude was definitely down a bad road with the booze for a long time. It honestly probably ended up being the main reason his NHL career was cut short.
John Kordic, baby. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kordic
Brett hull,alcohol
Nichushkin is obviously a guy who struggles, but he manages to come through. So props to him
Evader Kane
Gretzky has been a raging alcoholic since his days in Edmonton.
Slats was great at keeping that on the DL.
Mike Richards getting caught at the border with oxycodone. Had 5 years left on his contract, but was terminated. He agreed to a settlement, which confuses me. Like did the team know? Captain for WJC and Philadelphia. Not a fringe player.
Grant Fuhr, Theo Fleury, Wade Belak, Rick Rypien…some ended OK, some not so much.
Let’s not forget Craig MacTavish, Dany Heatley, and Rob Ramage who killed teammates when driving impaired.
Ray Borque was drunk as hell and an absolute jerk when we met him. Bruins should have at least tried to hide that better.
A lot. The end
Mike Ribeiro is not only a substance user, he’s also a POS
I’ve always wondered how much the junior hockey/billeting system contributes to the substance abuse in hockey.
Sending kids away at 16 to live elsewhere as a semi pro athlete with a bunch of other boys seems like a pretty bad idea for development but I’m not a psychologist or parent and was nowhere near good enough to be considered.
I remember Glenn Healy being hammered at an NHL event at South Street Seaport in the summer. It was pretty early in the morning too.
If you haven’t read it from 2011—I recommend reading Derek Boogaard: A Brain ‘Going Bad’ in the NYT. I’m a pretty casual hockey fan (and long-suffering Leafs fan) but that piece still haunts me.