The Florida Panthers scored the ever-important first goal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on their first shot of the night, but they also highlighted a disturbing trend for the Edmonton Oilers netminder.
Will the National Hockey League be addressing the LTIR loophole any time soon?
From the sounds of it, we can potentially expect the league to make a change eventually, but it may not be a simple fix.
Speaking to the media ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, deputy commissioner Billy Daly was asked about the response from general managers and the executive committee on the salary cap being circumvented by players on LTIR.
“Yeah I’ve gotten some feedback; I haven’t gotten all the feedback,” shared Daly.
“I think the results came back (how) I kind of anticipated they might. I think the majority of the people I’ve heard from would suggest in a perfect world we should try to address it in some way differently than we’re (currently) addressing it. None of them thought it was a major competitive issue in the short term.”
As it presently stands, NHL teams are able to circumvent the salary cap by designating players to the long-term injury reserve, all while operating within the legal boundaries of the collective bargaining agreement.
As a result of this being part of the CBA, the league cannot make any changes to the current function of LTIR without the approval of its players.
“It’s something we’re ultimately going to have to negotiate with the Players’ Association,” added Daly.
“So whether that can happen with two years left on a collective bargaining agreement? I’m not making any promises. Whether it’s going to be something we address in a broader collective bargaining negotiation? Quite possibly.”
Since there is no salary cap in the playoffs, teams can activate a player off LTIR without cap constraints after the regular season, as long as the player has met the requirements of LTIR (missing 10 games and 24 days).
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights are two of the teams who have attracted attention during recent seasons over their use of LTIR prior to the playoffs. Vegas, notably, had captain Mark Stone on LTIR up until the final game of the regular season two years in a row, before activating him for Game 1 of the playoffs.
However, almost all teams utilize LTIR at some point during a season — 22 of 32 teams did in 2023-24.
Back in March, during the NHL’s GM meetings, commissioner Gary Bettman said he did not believe any team was abusing LTIR.
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