I honestly wonder if at the end of the year we hear "NHL investigation found Tampa was manipulating the cap" and has been punished accordingly" after the playoffs are done lul

seems strange that Kucherov was expected back only playoff time and not a day sooner so to speak

in general NHL should make it a rule where if a player does not play 5 regular season games he is not allowed to play playoff games.

Nah. As soon as the injury is legit and not a made-up one, I think Tampa's good.

As a DAL fan we've lost our best forward in Seguin for a similar issue (hip surgery). I can see that Kuch is out for good reasons.

As for where Tampa's making the money to acquire Savard...I'm not so sure. But it's probably going to include Tyler Johnson. Dreger's tweet claims that the return for Savard "could be significant" so maybe Johnson+1st? Just spitballing here.

Brandon Pridham is the best Cap manipulator in the league and don’t forget about Robidas island

I don't really like that rule. I get that it is unfair that the Lightning are way over the cap but they paying the consequences by Kucherov not playing. And I think Kucherov is actually hurt because he wouldn't purposely sit out a year.

I saw a tweet that said 1st+other piece. I doubt that other piece is Johnson because he has a NTC. Im guessing 1st+Ben Thomas

nash is only on toronto because the circumstances allowed it, the leafs aren't keeping their 9.5 million winger who was skating a month ago on litr so they can actually ice a roster

Sure he’s skating but that’s the timeline for a labrum tear. There are players that would expedite their recovery to help the team but Kuch isn’t. Plus what’s going on with Andersen’s undisclosed injury and his retroactive LTIR? Seems fishy he was playing with an injury all year when at one point they had 4 goalies in the system.

but if u think about it Tampa waited 2 months before announcing he wanted to go for surgery. Why didnt he immediately go after the cup win or during the offseason. Things just are not adding up especially with Tampa trying to first waive Johnsson before the Kucherov surgery and than as soon as he went on LTIR signed everyone. Seems a bit off especially when they knew he would be back "by playoffs" and not sooner.

like why is he not expected back till playoffs, why not earlier? is his rehab really going at a snails pace as u got to think he should be back by now considering other NHL players before him have gone through the same surgery and returned sooner.

In general I have a feeling the NHL will implement a new rule to prevent cap manipulation like this in the future. Whereby your star player is expected to miss the playoffs great hes not allowed for the playoffs unless he plays 5 reg season games. This makes it fair to everyone involved

Andersen has a lower body injury. I think the team is forcing him to take time off and recover because he hasn't looked good this season. Retroactive LITR is allowed, I believe it him going on was apart of the Nash acquisition because he wasn't for a while and they were instead accruing cap space instead of deliberately going over.

No I 100% agree the injuries legit but the timeline and circumstances around it seem odd and favor the argument of cap manipulation. Why did he wait so long before going for surgery. Why not immediately go after winning the cup. GM immediately signs everyone day of the surgery announcement. Than u got the expected return date being playoffs and not a day sooner. Just seems a bit odd considering the fact they never account for him coming before the playoffs when other players have recovered in 4-5 months from the exact same hip surgery. Either they are making his rehab go at snails pace or the injury was more serious than they were letting on. All in All I have a strong suspicion the NHL will make amends to the rules to prevent players who miss the entire season from playing in the playoffs (unless they have played in the AHL or another league before returning and probs will have a min game requirement)

Perhaps he thought he could just play injured, but after some training decided that it just wouldn't work? Perhaps I'm naive thinking like this, but I wouldn't want to accuse them off illegal cap circumvention without clear proof.

It sounds dubious when put like how you did, but there's no real proof of what was done.

Although if Brisebois truly saw things that far back after winning the cup - kudos to him. I'll say that was masterfully played, all things considered.

At the end of the day I reckon TB would have rather just used Kucherov this year. The guy is arguably the best winger in the league, and he's much more useful on the ice than in the pressbox.

Would not be surprised if the NHL is looking into it but I have a feeling it will only be taken seriously if the win the cup again. But the NHL really needs a new rule for this kind of stuff from happening even if its a normal season ending injury. That way teams dont get an unfair advantage over others. So for me I would implement a rule where a player can only play in the playoffs if they either play 10 reg season games or have been playing in another league before arrival (applied to prospects outside the NHL)