It has become a national debate over whether the use of long-term injury reserve (LTIR) is fair to the salary cap and the trade deadline, considering what the Vegas Golden Knights continue to do every year.
However, the Golden Knights are not the only team using LTIR space to their advantage. The Colorado Avalanche have been operating in LTIR for the whole year because of Gabriel Landeskog‘s injury. Even If, and that is a big IF, Landeskog wanted to come back, the Avalanche could not activate him.
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So, what Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon is doing is not illegal. Is it bending the rules? You can’t even make that argument because it is in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
To LTIR or not to LTIR? ?@BizNasty2point0 and @ansoncarterLA debate Vegas’ cap moves to set up their huge trades pic.twitter.com/YGZXRmPebB
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 10, 2024
As Anson Carter says, if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. While that is from pro wrestling and the late great Eddie Guerrero. However, it is not cheating if it is the rules. And what Vegas is doing, we have seen in the past.
The Tampa Bay Lightning used LTIR to their advantage when they won both of their Stanley Cups, especially the second one, with Nikita Kuhcerov out the whole season before returning and lighting it up in the playoffs. And they flaunted it in everyone’s face.
Not to mention the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015, when they won their third Stanley Cup and had Patrick Kane on LTIR from before the trade deadline to the start of the playoffs. So it has been done.
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However, the Golden Knights are dealing with legitimate injuries. Robin Lehner has been out the whole year with an injury, and Mark Stone may not even be back because of a spleen injury. So McCrimmon utilized the space to his advantage to improve his club not only this year but also down the line.
Remember, McCrimmon said, “I’m in the Winning Business, Not the Hockey Business.”
The Vegas Golden Knights add defenseman Noah Hanifin, who they could re-sign to an extension. In addition, they make the Show-Stopping headline by acquiring Tomas Hertl from San Jose. Hertl still has six more years on his deal, which carried an $8.1375 million AAV, but with the Sharks retaining, he’s down to a $6.75 million cap hit for the Golden Knights.
That means there could be an issue when players like Jonathan Marchesseault and Chandler Stephenson come free agency in the off-season. As far as now goes, other teams are upset that McCrimmon finds a way to keep his team competitive.
However, the other teams can do it; they just choose not to. Toronto has used LTIR space; the New Jersey Devils had space to use and did not. The New York Rangers could have used more LTIR space with the Jacob Trouba injury to acquire a winger, but instead of doing so, they are complaining.
There is some talk they are going to look into this. However, it may not go far because of the point Ken Holland made when he was the Detroit Red Wings general manager in 2002, as Elliotte Friedman noted on the 32 Thoughts Podcast.
“Here’s the problem with that, Ken Holland brought that up when they were bringing the salary cap in and everybody backed-off cause they remembered he was right, you remember in the 2002 playoffs when Toronto went to the ECF against Carolina and lost, the Leafs had like 10 guys injured, and Holland said what if that happens to you and you can’t field a team in the playoffs, you’re not going to want that, and he was right, nobody wanted that, so that’s why there is no cap in the playoffs.”
In addition, Friedman noted on Hockey Night in Canada that there will be talk of potentially establishing an eligibility rule for the playoffs.
Friedman: “A couple of managers are not 100% comfortable with a player not being able to play game #82 in regular season but can play Game 1 of the playoffs, there is nothing you can do in this CBA but perhaps will be addressed in next CBA. Perhaps you will have to miss a certain amount of playoff games you will have to miss if you can’t play game #82.”
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Not to mention, this could be a moot point when the salary cap goes up each year. Don’t forget teams were operating in a flat cap. Next off-season, the salary cap will go up, and it should be going up and up when the next CBA is up.
However, the Vegas Golden Knights continued to be aggressive at the deadline as they positioned themselves to keep the Stanley Cup in Sin City.
