New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Toronto Maple Leafs forward Carter Ashton was suspended 20 games without pay by the NHL for using a banned performance- enhancing substance that the player says came from an asthma inhaler.<\/p>\n
The NHL said Thursday the suspension will cost Ashton over $169,000 based on his salary and comes with an automatic referral for substance-abuse evaluation and possible treatment under the collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n
Ashton, 23, said in a statement released through the NHL players’ union that he will not appeal the suspension.<\/p>\n
He said he suffered an asthma attack during training in August and used an inhaler given to him by another athlete that he later discovered contained the banned substance Clenbuterol.<\/p>\n
Ashton said the inhaler provided him with immediate relief of his asthma symptoms and that he used it a second time early in training camp for the same reason.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, I incorrectly assumed that there were no problems associated with the use of this inhaler and I used it without checking to see whether its contents were permissible under the league’s performance-enhancing substances program,” Ashton said.<\/p>\n
Clenbuterol is a widely banned substance the World Anti-Doping Agency says can be publicized as a weight-loss drug.<\/p>\n
Ashton said he was not trying to gain an athletic advantage or to knowingly violate the league’s program. He said he has since been diagnosed by a Maple Leafs’ doctor with exercise-induced asthma.<\/p>\n
“As a professional hockey player, I recognize that I am responsible for what I put into my body, and I will not appeal my suspension,” he said. “While I am extremely disappointed that I have let my teammates, our fans and the Maple Leafs organization down, I will work very hard during my suspension to stay in game shape so that I can help out the team when I am able to return.”<\/p>\n
Ashton has appeared in three games for the Maple Leafs this season and in 50 since the 2011-12 season, and has three career assists. He was suspended last November for two games for boarding Calgary Flames defenseman Derek Smith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York, NY (SportsNetwork.com) – Toronto Maple Leafs forward Carter Ashton was suspended 20 games without pay by the NHL for using a banned performance- enhancing substance that the player says came from an asthma inhaler. The NHL said Thursday the suspension will cost Ashton over $169,000 based on his salary and comes with an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}