Todd Fedoruk told the Vancouver Province he has been clean and sober for 18 months as he gets ready for training camp with the Vancouver Canucks in two weeks.
Fedoruk, 32, was bought out by the Tampa Bay Lightning after the 2009-10 season and did not play last season, which he said was good for him.
“I needed the time away to mend myself, get to know myself better as a person, and realize the re-lapse happened because I got away from the disciplined things I'm always going to have to do to stay right mentally once it's a part of your life," he told the newspaper.
Fedoruk said he usually drank but would "go for pretty much anything that was in front of me."
A hulking 6-2, 241-pound enforcer who plays left wing, Fedoruk has 32 goals, 65 assists and 1,050 penalty minutes in 545 career games with Philadelphia, Anaheim, Dallas, Minnesota, Phoenix and Tampa Bay.
With Anaheim in 2006, Fedoruk had his face shattered in a fight with the late Derek Boogaard.
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