Pierre-Luc Dubois was a young player finding his NHL way.

Unlike the big centre's time in junior, he quickly learned there was plenty of everything in pro locker rooms.

Stick tape? Take as much as you need. Chewing gum? Fill your pockets. Post-game protein shakes? Name a flavour. And among the many items on offer was something he hadn't used before — smelling salts.

"It's one of those things," Dubois said. "When you come into the league … you grow a routine."

The use of smelling salts are a routine the NFL tried to curb, even ever so slightly, back in August. The league announced it would bar teams from directly giving out ammonia-based inhalants to players, but fell short of banning the product outright.

Citing a U.S. Food and Drug Administration warning from 2024, the NFL pointed to

See Full Page