NHL Cannabis Policy 2026: SABH Program, No Auto-Suspension

Status: Tested but Not on the PES List Tested, fines only

The NHL is the major-league outlier on cannabis testing structure. It tests — but cannabis sits on the panel of the Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health (SABH) program rather than on the league's Performance-Enhancing Substances (PES) list. The distinction is the entire game: a positive test alone does not trigger discipline. The result is reviewed anonymously by the SABH co-medical-directors, who can offer — not mandate — entry into a confidential treatment program. The framework predates the 2020 reform wave that swept through MLB, the NFL, and eventually the NBA, and it has remained in place ever since.

The SABH Program: Confidentiality First

The NHL/NHLPA Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health program is run jointly by the league and the players' association. Co-medical-directors Dr. Dave Lewis and Dr. Brian Shaw oversee testing, review, and any treatment-pathway recommendations. The architecture is built around physician confidentiality — team management, ownership, and league discipline are insulated from positive-test results unless the player declines treatment that the medical staff considers necessary.

NHLPA senior executive Mathieu Schneider summarized the league's position to ESPN in 2019: "we have a tremendous amount of faith in the doctors that run the program. Confidentiality in that program is of the utmost importance."

The Critique of the Voluntary Structure

Critics have argued that the SABH structure tolerates broader substance issues — that physician-confidential treatment without league enforcement creates a permissive environment that quietly accumulates problems for individual players. Proponents counter that the same architecture is exactly what allows players to seek help without career consequences, and that the alternative — the NFL's pre-2020 SAP framework — created stigmatized stages that drove players away from disclosure and into worse outcomes.

The 2025 NHL CBA extension preserved the SABH framework intact. No threshold change, no PES-list addition, no new discipline category. The implicit message: the league and players' association are satisfied with the current structure for cannabis.

Named Athlete-Advocates

The NHL alumni network has produced several publicly visible cannabis advocates:

• Riley Cote — former Philadelphia Flyer (2006–2010), now a CaniBrands ambassador and a founding member of Athletes for CARE. Cote is the most prolific NHL alumni voice on cannabis, with extensive media engagement on hockey-specific concussion and pain-management questions.
• Paul Bissonnette — "Biz Nasty," former Coyotes and Penguins forward, now Spittin' Chiclets co-host. Has been openly tolerant of cannabis use in his media work.
• Darren McCarty — former Detroit Red Wing and four-time Stanley Cup winner, public advocate for medical cannabis post-career.

Why "Tested but Not Disciplinary" Matters

For athletes thinking comparatively, the NHL framework occupies a distinctive position. It is more restrictive than the NBA's full removal or MLB's drugs-of-abuse delisting: cannabis is on the panel and a positive test does generate a result. It is less restrictive than the NFL's training-camp window with fines: a positive does not, by itself, generate any financial or playing-time penalty. The closest structural analog is MLB's "treated like alcohol" framework — both leagues have routed cannabis findings into clinical pathways rather than enforcement pathways — though the NHL retains testing more aggressively than MLB does.

For mechanics of the threshold, urinary metabolite, and confirmation-testing logic that even a non-disciplinary panel uses, see Test Types and Thresholds & Windows.