Quoting: DONTGIVEAPUCK13
Also said it's for cap reasons. Today's roster announcement always them to have a good roster against Vancouver tomorrow and maximize LTIR pool. After tomorrow, I believe Khaira will be dropped down to taxi and they sign shore (cap savings). Bouchard and McCloud will go to Bakersfield will Haas moving to Taxi as well.
I figure it's more likely McLeod replaces JJ and they keep Shore around on his PTO until they need him. Or maybe they do sign Shore after tomorrow. But either way guys like Bouchard, McLeod and Benson will stick around as long as possible. There won't be AHL games until late in the month at the earliest. No sense sending them sit around in a Covid hotspot until they need to -- there isn't even any ice in Bakersfield right now so they wouldn't be tuning up at all.
One thing to keep in mind is JJ has cleared waivers so he can go up and down for 30 days without having to be waived again. That's some baked in roster flexibility. Could use it to give the kids some reps, or light a fire under JJ's ass (consistency of play), or even for a different look (speed vs size/physicality) against different opponents.
And I think Haas is too flexible to send down for now. He draws penalties, skates well, and does fine on either side of the puck, and could play C or RW. Was a plus PK'er in Switzerland so he's versatile enough to keep around. Doesn't cost much. Doesn't make sense to waive one of two right-shot C on the roster.
Quoting: Zmach
They need to go over the cap by as much as possible for a day. Klefbom then gets placed on LTIR they will then free up about 3.8 million of cap. The cap doesn’t actually work like capfriendly you need to go over and how much you go over is your cap relief upto the contract amount of the player or you become compliant which isnt happening. Then Bouchard, Neal, and JJ go on taxi squad haas goes on scratch and shore is signed.
Yes, the cap relief is the available roster space minus the injured player's cap hit.
I don't see Neal going on the taxi squad any time soon. There's no need, and he's a useful veteran. His play last year suffered after he broke his toe or foot. Still managed 19 goals. Not half bad, really.