They say this “circumvention” rule is fair because all teams can use it, but that’s not true. Teams can use it only if they happen to have injuries that take them to the end of the regular season.

LTIR exists to enable teams to replace players who have serious injuries. That makes sense, but they should never be able to turn it into an advantage. That incents teams to try to get their players hurt, provided they can time it right. I don’t think any team would do that intentionally, but a rule that creates such a possibility is morally wrong.

One way to solve this problem would be to say that if a player is on LTIR at end of the regular season, he can’t come back for the playoffs. However, the NHL isn’t just competition, it’s also entertainment. They don’t want their best players sitting in the press box if they’re capable of playing. The real problem is that the salary cap doesn’t count in the playoffs. They may have decided on that because it’s very difficult to clear cap space after the trade deadline, since you can’t trade away players. I think the rule should be that your team can be over the cap during the playoffs, but under no circumstances can the players you dress for a game have a combined cap hit that’s above the cap. That way you can bring back your injured players, but you can’t stack the team around them with all the extra players you brought in to replace them. Or you could if you could find some other way to take money out of the lineup. Basically, you’d probably have to scratch your most overpaid players rather than your weakest players. Such a team would still have an advantage over a team that’s cap compliant, but not as much as now, when they can dress whomever they want even if they’re way over the cap.

It's cute when Uncie Lou and Doobie does it and the media dubs it 'Robidas island lol'. And Leaf fans brag that their cap guy helped write the newer CBA rules for the cap. And they throw Matt Murray and Klingberg there and no doubt next year's scapegoat too.

And it's cute now, too.

The difference is Murray and Klingberg aren’t coming back. Stone is going to magically reappear in the playoffs after they’ve used his LTIR exemption to bring in Hanifin, Mantha and Hertl.

Seems like Calgary should have been competing with Las Vegas for best D-core in NHL if they didn't get rid of Sutter and Treliving in first place...

Easier to just get rid of all this salary cap nonsense once and for all but of course they won't because owners benefit too much from have salary cap...only job in the world where you have regulated limits on how much you can get paid is professional athlete...

How is TO? Murray and Klingberg - Hip surgery
Muzzin - Neck injury, some teammates and doctors are surprise he's walking again