Daly says the league has had preliminary talks with the players association about testing and will discuss it as part of the negotiations for a new contract to replace the one that expires on Sept. 15.
"I'm very confident we don't have a problem with performance-enhancing drugs in our sport," Daly said. "Having said that, I also see the benefit of having a more comprehensive program that may include elements of testing and sanctions."
Saskin, like baseball union leader Donald Fehr and unlike NFL union chief Gene Upshaw, sounded less enthusiastic about testing.
"We expect to continue our current program in the future, and will continue to adapt the program to address any developing situations that may arise," he said.
That's pretty much an outline for doing nothing, even if the health of the players and the integrity of the game are at risk.
Baseball went that route and found itself in a mess when 5-7 percent of its initial tests came back positive and star players were linked in a federal investigation to a San Francisco lab that allegedly distributed steroids.
The World Anti-Doping Agency already has the list of drugs, the labs, the out-of-competition testing, the education programs and the adjudication process that hockey players have participated in for the Olympics.
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