BLADES' LUKIN OUT FOR USING COCAINE

Reports Claim 23-Year-Old Banned By Canadian League After Testing
Positive For Cocaine

Florida Everblades rookie forward Jarret Lukin's future with the ECHL
team is in jeopardy after news of his standing with the governing
body of college athletics in Canada came to light Friday.

According to an article published by multiple publications on the
Internet, the 23-year-old Lukin has been handed a two-year ban by the
CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) and the CCES (Canadian Centre
for Ethics in Sports) after testing positive for cocaine. The
University of Calgary suspended Lukin from the team on Nov. 28 after
being informed of the positive test.

On Friday afternoon, the ECHL suspended Lukin indefinitely to
"investigate an off-ice incident."

Lukin was sent back to his apartment before Friday night's game and
instructed not to speak to the media, but he did talk to The Canadian Press.

"It was a mistake off the ice," Lukin told The Canadian Press. "It's
been dealt with and I'm dealing with it now from a media perspective.
I'm just looking to move on and put it behind me."

"Obviously I'm responsible for my actions," he added. "I don't really
want to comment on specifics, but it was a mistake. That's not the
guy I am. I've already learned from it. It's just tough. But I've
been dealing with it, I've got a good support group and I just hope
to be a better person from it."

Everblades team president and general manager Craig Brush said he
turned the matter over to the league, and Brian McKenna, ECHL
commissioner, confirmed the suspension.

"He'll stay here until they complete the investigation but he can't
practice or play with the team," Brush said prior to Friday night's
game. "We do not have a drug testing policy in the league, so this is
something that will have to be worked out between the league and the
players' union, the PHPA (Professional Hockey Players Association)."

Brush reiterated that he was not aware of Lukin's suspension or the
test results when he signed him, saying he was of the belief that
Lukin wanted to leave school and turn pro. Lukin declined comment
when asked by The Canadian Press why Brush did not learn of the
positive result until Friday.

According to one of the articles, Lukin, who is only the fourth CIS
hockey player to test positive for a banned substance since the CIS
began testing in 1990, appealed the ruling and appeared before a
doping tribunal on Jan. 31 to ask for a reduction in penalties. He
explained that he did not use cocaine to enhance his performance, but
an arbitrator upheld the suspension.

"I tried to fight it in that sense -- I wasn't cheating," Lukin told
The Canadian Press. "And they obviously gave me the two years."

"I knew it was on the list (of prohibited substances)," he added. "I
just got caught at the wrong place at the wrong time and I made a bad
decision."

Florida officially signed Lukin on Jan. 29 and in three games he had
a goal and an assist. In his 39 games with Calgary last season he had
39 points (9 goals, 30 assists). Lukin spent the previous five years
in juniors, four-and-a-half of them with the Western Hockey League's
Kamloops Blazers.

He ended 2004-05 with the Medicine Hat Tigers, where he had 16 points
(7 goals, 9 assists) in 26 games. Lukin's best season was in 2002-03,
when he scored 74 points (32 goals, 42 assists) in 65 regular-season games.

"You never like to see a player go through this type of circumstance,
that is obviously a mistake (on Lukin's part)," WHL commissioner Ron
Robison told the Medicine Hat News. Robison committed his league to
install a similar drug testing policy to that of the CIS this season.

Lukin was one of four Everblades players to have appeared on the
popular Canadian reality television show, "Making The Cut: Last Man
Standing," where 36 players competed for a $250,000 NHL contract.
Fellow rookies David Brine, Franklin MacDonald and Adam Taylor were the others.

On the show, Lukin and Taylor quickly became the resident pranksters
and favorites of one of the camera crews for their antics, but in
this case his apparent lapse in judgment cost him and impacted his
family back in Canada as well.

"Me and Luks are good friends, I've known him since I was 14 years
old, so it's something that happened to him, he made a mistake and he
just wants to get over it and make a fresh start," Taylor said after
Friday night's 5-3 win over Pensacola. "I know back in Canada they're
making a big deal out of it, but he just wants to get back to playing
hockey and he's just waiting to see what happens with our league.

"I'll vouch for that guy any day, I'll go to battle for him because I
know what kind of guy he is and what kind of character he has. I
think he'd do the same for me if the situation happened to me or
someone else, so I think the whole team is really going to stand by
him. He was hoping that nothing was going to happen, and I think the
fans will really fall in love with him once they get to see him on the ice."

Lukin's mother, Joanne, is standing behind her son with conviction.

"He made an error. He's being penalized very heavily by the CIS or
CCES," Joann Lukin told the Calgary Herald.

She went on to tell the Herald that her son told the family he used
cocaine on Halloween night -- three days before the unannounced Nov.
3 doping control test. Cocaine is a prohibited substance on the World
Anti-Doping Agency's prohibited list. Lukin now faces two years of
sport ineligibility in Canada and permanent ineligibility for federal
sport funding.

"It's a little personal issue and he made the wrong choice one night,
and that's it," Lukin's mother told the Herald. "It was definitely
not a performance-enhancing drug. It was a recreation drug. We are
really disappointed in the system, that they didn't support him. He's
a really good kid. He's done a lot in his hockey career. It's just
unfortunate. He was honest, and said that he did the drug. And they
didn't support him."

As for the ECHL, McKenna confirmed Lukin's suspension, pointing out
that even though the league does not have a drug testing policy, the
league can suspend a player if he is has been convicted of
possession, distribution or use of an illegal drug or if they're
found to have had a positive test for an illegal drug.

From this point, the league will try to obtain official copies of
the test administered by the CIS and any other pieces of evidence
they need to finish their investigation and determine how strict of a
suspension to hand down.

"As far as his pay status, that's to be determined," McKenna said by
phone from the league offices in Princeton, N.J. "That's where the
PHPA comes into this as well, but if in fact he's found guilty of
this then obviously he'd be suspended without pay for a particular
period of time. On the other hand we want to make sure that there are
facts to support and not just suspend a player and take away his pay
or his right to earn a living."