If he's truly neodivergent.... which sounds plausible to me...... then the NHL hockey regimen is ruining his health and drugs are the way he's trying to cope.
This is serious. This is tragic. He needs to find another profession. Otherwise he's gonna end up in an early grave.
I just want to clarify that I don't have the qualifications to diagnose psychiatric conditions. Therefore, I have absolutely no possibility to diagnose Nuke, especially not from a distance.
However, I have a child who has severe ADHD and is on the autism spectrum. So, I have a lot of experience parenting and caring for a neurodivergent person and I have taken courses and read a lot about both diagnoses.
So, while I expressed myself rather confidently, I obviously don't know that he has a neurodivergent condition. His behavioural pattern could be derived from other issues and causes. However, I think it is important that we at least consider the possibility that he is neurodivergent, which means that he experiences life differently.
Even if he is neurodivergent the singlemost important issue for his qualify of life and social relations is that he recieves a diagnosis, which will allow him to get treatment and crucially for people to understand his behaviour and his experience of the world. If I was his boss, and if cared for him and he was such an important an assett, and he displayed the behavioural pattern he does, I would do everything I could to provide him with a diagnosis and a plan for his treatment. I would push for him to be open about it with his team mates and other co-workers such that they could support and help him. In other words, his inability to stay clean could be a symtom of underlying issues, which are perfectly treatable and should be talked about and dealt with rationally. The problem with simply making moral judgement about his behaviour is that people give up on actually understanding and dealing with any problems. Now, I have no clue, as in no clue, if psychological or neuro-psychological condition are frowned upon, or seen as a weakness in the context of the NHL. It is possible that players hide such issues out of fear of being dropped and losing their career given how hyper-competitive it is.
I remember when Colin Wilson came out and revealed that he suffered from serious OCD and I imagine many other players have underlying conditions. For most they are probably what makes them such good athletes, but for others they become debilitating and ruin their careers.
But again I admit that it is all speculation on my part. In my defence, this is just a forum where we debate stuff and speculate anyways.