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 is 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 a lack of evidence supporting the product’s safety or efficacy, along with the potential risk of masking concussions.
Smelling salts were originally developed to revive people who had fainted, but for years have been marketed to athletes seeking energy boosts or added alertness.
The small packets that snap open are also a common sight on NHL benches. Deputy commissioner Bill Daly said recently there are no plans to change the league’s policy that allows teams to distribute smelling salts, but added it is being studied.
“I’m not sure we necessarily share the NFL’s concern,” Daly said at the recent NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas when asked about the concussion element. “Certainly we’re aware of the fact that the (FDA) has issued warnings for use of the product … really on kind of false advertising basis that it does something that it doesn’t do, more than anything else.”
Hockey Quebec, the game’s governing body in that province, banned smelling salts in February after at least one coach was suspended in relation to the use of the inhalants by players in the under-11 age group, while Sport P.E.I. has also raised concerns.
Hockey Canada said in August that while the organization doesn’t have a policy for stimulant products such as ammonia-based smelling salts, “there are concerns with their use when not medically prescribed.”
“Hockey Canada will continue to work with our members to better understand the availability and use of ammonia-based smelling salts and other stimulant products with hockey players across the country,” the statement read.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League, meanwhile, went further back in the summer, stating since its inaugural 2023-24 season that “all teams have been directed not to supply smelling salts and to advise players that their use is strongly discouraged.”
Dubois, now a member of the Washington Capitals after stints with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Winnipeg Jets and Los Angeles Kings, said that although he doesn’t endorse anything when it comes to smelling salts, it’s his experience that they help “waking you up.”
“It just kind of stuck,” he explained. “It’s like, start of the game where, ‘OK, we’re having fun.’ And then right before the first faceoff, I do the smelling salts, and it’s just like, ‘OK.’ I click into, ‘This is game time.’
“I would never do them in a different context than hockey.”
St. Louis Blues centre Robert Thomas said that buzz right before puck drop hits the spot.
“You can feel the oxygen get through your whole body, and bring some excitement to let you think a little clearer,” he said before quickly adding, “That could just be how I feel sometimes. I don’t know the science behind it, but seems like it works. A lot of guys love it.”Â
Carolina Hurricanes winger Seth Jarvis isn’t convinced smelling salts have the impact some players believe.
“I think people exaggerate a little bit, but they do help,” he said. “Wakes you up, shocks your system a little bit. Kids shouldn’t be doing it, and it’s probably smart that they ban that. But I like them.
“Just the little jolt that gives you before a game.”
Chicago Blackhawks centre Connor Bedard said he tried smelling salts a couple of times in his 2024-25 rookie season.
“Startles you a little,” he said. “I don’t think they need to be banned. We’re adults. We can make our own decisions. If it’s bad for you, it’s bad for you.”
Florida Panthers winger Sam Reinhart, meanwhile, would be happy to see the end of smelling salts in the NHL — if only for purely selfish reasons.
“The only times I smell them is when someone has it beside me and I catch a whiff,” he said with a laugh. “I’d love it if they banned them.”
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