The Vegas Golden Knights are dealing with their first major controversy as defenseman Nate Schmidt has been suspended by the NHL for the first 20 games of the 2018-19 NHL season for a violation of the league's Performance Enhancing Substances Program. The suspension, announced early Sunday morning while most VGK fans slept, is being hotly contested by the team.
In a statement released this morning, the Golden Knights responded with the explanation Schmidt had trace amounts of a banned substance and could not explain how the substance entered his body. No word yet as to what substance was found but the team and Schmidt are floating the idea that, due to the minuscule amounts found in his system, the positive result could have been the result of "environmental contamination."
The team was quick to release a statement, as was Schmidt himself.
A major cog in the Golden Knights Stanley Cup Final run this past season, this is a major blow to the team and its squeaky clean image. The team says it provided the NHL quite a bit of evidence showing Schmidt didn't knowingly consume anything that would be a violation of the league PED policy. "We firmly believe that the presence of a trace of the banned substance was accidental and unintentional," the statement said. "Based on our conversations with Nate, analysis from independent medical experts and sworn testimony from the parties involved, we believe it is clear Nate was not able to reasonably ascertain how the substance entered his body." More so, the team went further to vouch for their defenseman's moral character. "Nate is an honest person with high moral character and great integrity. We will stand by him and support him during this time." Schmidt, on the other hand, explained further how little of the substance was in his system. The defenseman says just seven billionth of a milligram was detected, not remotely enough to have any effect on his body. Tests found roughly a dose the size of a grain of salt diluted in a swimming pool in his system. Based on both the statement from the team and from Schmidt himself, no appeal is forthcoming. Both the team and Schmidt also announced they would not comment any further at this time.
