But how does it circumvent the cap? If you're on LTIR you don't count against the cap? What if you get sent down to the minors?
The answer would be to make LTIR a set amount of time, no matter whether you're healthy or not.
But when it's legit, it's fine. Like when Marner was out with a high ankle sprain, the Leafs get relief on his $11M salary so they can bring up kids from the minors to fill the missing player and still stay under the cap. Or players that have legit season ending injuries like Landeskog, Muzzin, Lehner (the tatter two are really a career ending) and the like.
The rub is when it
conveniently happens A) on a BIG contract, B) before the trade deadline, and a C) the team then deals for players while that "injured" salary gets relief against the cap, and the player is
miraculously cleared to go in Game 1 of the playoffs.
Tampa was dressing a $90M roster in the 2021 playoffs - which teams can only do if a big name player is on LTIR before the deadline, but ready to play in Game 1. Vegas is currently dressing a roster on the ice that is just under $90M, let alone their 23-man roster is north of $90M. And looking at Capfriendly, the Leafs are WAY over, but their LTIR players are legit LTIR and NOT going to be dressing for the playoffs.
It's not actually cheating, but it's gaming the system to earn an unfair advantage.
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