Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.
Nick Suzuki and the Montreal Canadiens were dreaming big.
The club stunned the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2021 playoffs before sweeping the Winnipeg Jets and eliminating the Vegas Golden Knights.
The second of two pandemic-shortened seasons – this one with unique divisions – would see Montreal face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup final.
Suzuki, then a second-year center, soon found his team struggling with one hand tied behind its back.
The NHL’s long-term injured reserve rules meant the Lightning were about US$18 million over the league’s $81.5 million salary cap – which does not apply in the postseason – once the playoffs began.
“We didn’t really get help with that,” Suzuki recalled.
And everything, to be clear, was above board.
Tampa forward Nikita Kucherov missed the entire 56-game schedule following hip surgery, but was ready for Game 1 of the playoffs. The Russian winger went on to finish first in scoring in the spring and early summer, winning the Conn Smythe Trophy as postseason MVP and helping the Lightning secure their second straight Cup.
However, Kucherov’s $9.5 million salary did not count a cent against the cap during the season. Along with other LTIR moves — a player must sit out at least 10 regular-season games and 24 days for clubs to get salary relief — that allowed Tampa to massage its roster in ways that probably wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
The NHL monitors the system to make sure teams are respecting the process, but there have been questions about stopping the cap since the Lightning won in 2021 and Vegas has benefited from LTIR on the way to clinch’ r Cup in 2023.
The Lightning weighed into the narrative after their win, with Kucherov wearing a “$18M Over The Cap” T-shirt during the team’s celebrations.
“Obviously a gap in the system,” said Suzuki, now Montreal’s captain. “Teams are right to take advantage of that. It’s definitely a touchy subject.
“If you use it, you like it. And if you don’t… “
Vegas captain Mark Stone had back surgery in February 2023 and was on LTIR until Game 1 of the playoffs that spring. The accumulated cap space helped the Golden Knights acquire forwards Ivan Barbashev and Teddy Blueger, and goaltender Jonathan Quick for their postseason quest.
Stone was again on LTIR last season with a lacerated spleen, which, along with star center Jack Eichel also sidelined for an extended period, allowed management to acquire defenseman Noah Hanifin along with forwards Tomas Hertl and Anthony Mantha .
Stone was again ready for his team’s opener, even though Vegas fell to the Dallas Stars in seven games.
The Lightning and the Golden Knights, who have both repeatedly defended their moves so firmly within the LTIR framework, are not the first teams to use the rules in this way.
The Chicago Blackhawks put Patrick Kane on LTIR in February 2015, but he was back in time for the playoffs – along with some of his newly acquired teammates – before helping the franchise win its third Cup in six years.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said that while the system may need an update, he doesn’t believe players would sit out when they’re healthy just for cap reasons.
“Guys want to play,” he said. “It would be difficult from the trade deadline forward to just sit out and wait. I would like to think that the integrity of teams and boys is in the right place.
“But it’s definitely unfortunate.”
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said there is a majority desire across the league’s 32 general managers to potentially change the system, but the way cap space is accumulated and calculated in the season doesn’t make for a simple equation .
“The majority (of GMs) would like us to continue to consider making some kind of adjustment,” Daly said. “That’s what we’ll be looking at.”
Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving said one possible solution being tossed around is a playoff salary cap.
“There are always great ideas,” he warned. “Then you forget about the unintended consequences. I would like to know more about how it would all work and how it would all look.”
Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl said that regardless of the rules, efforts will always be made to find solutions.
“It’s going to be like that forever where people are going to try to be creative,” he said.
Seattle Kraken defenseman Brandon Montour said simple fairness is key.
“If you’re sitting out an eight, nine, ten million dollar player, you shouldn’t have as much cap space,” he said. “You should get, like, half of it. You shouldn’t be able to use the eight, nine million bucks and be able to pick up three players.”
Suzuki, who has lived through a series where the ice felt tilted, hopes that LTIR will eventually tinker.
“It’s definitely given teams a huge advantage,” he said. “Sometimes you just luck into it and other times it seems like it could be a strategy. I’m not in the medical room. I don’t really know what’s going on with those teams.
“It could be fair.”
But he has his doubts.
This report was first published by The Canadian Press on October 9, 2024.
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(Except translation, this story has not been edited by achinews staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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