Do you think the NHL should address the LTIR/playoffs issue?

[Midnight Judges]

For me it would depend on the how.

How do you address it?

 

[MuckOG]

For me it would depend on the how.

How do you address it?

You address it by only icing a team in the playoffs that is cap compliant. Players who would be inactive for a game would not count against the cap.

 

[Midnight Judges]

You address it by only icing a team in the playoffs that is cap compliant. Players who would be inactive for a game would not count against the cap.

How do you do the math on that?

Is each player's cap hit pro-rated per game?

So if the salary cap is $83.5M / 82 games = $1,018,292.68 per game for the whole team, and the sum total of your players can't exceed that? I don't think that quite works given creativity of trades, retention, and stuff. So what else makes it work?

 

[MuckOG]

How do you do the math on that?

Is each player's cap hit pro-rated per game?

So if the salary cap is $83.5M / 82 games = $1,018,292.68 per game, and the sum total of your players can't exceed that? I don't think that quite works given creativity of trades and stuff. So what else makes it work?

Going by their AAV would be the fairest way to do it. This way, if one of your top players goes on LTIR during the season, the team can replace them with a good player. But when the LTIR player comes back for the playoffs, that team shouldn't benefit over the other teams who managed to keep their players healthy during the regular season.

 

[Midnight Judges]

Going by their AAV would be the fairest way to do it. This way, if one of your top players goes on LTIR during the season, the team can replace them with a good player. But when the LTIR player comes back for the playoffs, that team shouldn't benefit over the other teams who managed to keep their players healthy during the regular season.

It seems reasonable I guess.

In that instance they are benching their way back to the cap? Like they might have to bench a few million worth of players?

 

[MuckOG]

It seems reasonable I guess.

In that instance they are benching their way back to the cap? Like they might have to bench a few million worth of players?

Yes.

 

[pantherbot]

With over 100 votes and >75% saying yes, I think we can at least say a majority of engaged fans do care about the issue and want to see something done.

So we can stop with the idea that fans don't care about the issue.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Is each player's cap hit pro-rated per game?

It’s calculated daily, about 187 days.

 

[x Tame Impala]

Bettman is on record saying it’s not something they’re concerned about. So like the current playoff format, if he doesn’t want to change it I’m going to stop being mad about it because it’ll never change.

It does seem like a very convenient workaround if not a deliberate attempt at boosting your team for the playoffs however. No amount of explaining from a team’s fanbase will change that.

 

[Jared Dunn]

I think making it necessary for the on ice roster in playoffs to be cap compliant is the best way to go, you can carry as much overage in the press box as you want. Or even cap compliant +10% or something

 

[Jared Dunn]

It's not even that teams like Vegas and Tampa should be punished for their cap circumvention - it's actually pretty impressive how they adapt to find loopholes in the way it's written. If anything, they should be lauded for their resourcefulness.

I think it's moreso a testament to how much better the sport would be for everyone involved - fans, franchises, players, etc - if there wasn't a hard cap in place that only serves to stifle creativity and opportunity. I understand why it exists from the owners' POV, but in regards to how the league operates, the hard cap is one of the dumbest, most mind numbing things in sports. ****ing brutal system

While I agree to an extent, I also don't want to see the NHL get to an MLB stage where some teams are basically glorified farm systems for the Yankees and Dodgers

Just an idea.

If you are on LTIR between trade deadline and the end of the year. Disqualifies you from round 1 of playoffs.

Don't like that, encourages guys to play through injuries late in the season

 

[ManofSteel55]

The solution is quite simple: Keep the salary cap in the post season, with a "twist". Your roster can be over the salary cap, but for any particular game, the active players for that game have to be under the cap.

I like this approach.

 

[Kamus]

While I agree to an extent, I also don't want to see the NHL get to an MLB stage where some teams are basically glorified farm systems for the Yankees and Dodgers


Don't like that, encourages guys to play through injuries late in the season

Fair, but what’s happening now is that it encourages guys to not play even if they are healthy.

The way I see it. If you are good enough to play in the playoffs (tougher hockey)you are good enough to play two days before the playoffs in usually meaningless games. Forces your team to take that into account for the trade deadline if they have to dress you one game during the season.

 

[Kamus]

That's a load of crap.

What if its someone who was on LTIR long before the trade deadline? Their team gets screwed over now?

Also the NHLPA will never agree to any measure that prevents players from playing.

If they are on LTIR for a long time, them coming back exactly on the first game of playoffs are really low (if honest). Unless of course they are kept longer on LTIR due to cap reasons, which we see all the time, and could have come back 1-2 games earlier or more.

 

[MattMartin]

Was just a coincidence that Kucherov missed the regular season in 20/21 and was ready for game 1 of the playoffs (said nobody ever).

 

[Chips]

I’ll never care. The cap isn’t about parity beyond, like the Leafs or Rangers buying an Olympic roster. McDavid MacKinnon and Matthews down the middle.


The Lightning and Blackhawks were not unbeatable. The cap was not really primarily about parity anyway, but there was and is still plenty of parity first of all.


I’d willingly bet on the Knights getting eliminated early even with their full roster.



Every team plays by the same rules. Like every team is allowed to build a stacked team, not every team is capable.


Every team is allowed to use LTIR like this, not every team is capable. You need good asset management to have a good enough roster to survive losing a star, and you need available draft picks and or good drafting (so your tradeable prospects have actual value), and or be willing to make a risky star trade.

eg the Oilers could quite possibly have done something with McDavids injury but how confident would they be going in, and what assets to they have to trade to add beyond their bottom six and 3rd pair?

I can’t see the complaining as much other than whining from fans who just want their team to play worse opponents, but would probably be fine if this was their team lol.


It’s a competitive league. I love when a team gets to this point that they can stack their roster. The Lightning teams were some of the most fun playoff runs I’ve seen.

We accept gamesmanship from players within games. I see this is manager gamesmanship

 

[Former Referee 68]

Have as many people you want on your play off roster Hell you could have 125mil worth of cap, but the team you put on the ice has to be at salary cap or under... easy peasy

 

[Three On Zero]

Why fix something that isn’t broken?

 

[BB79]

Yes. Close all loopholes. If teams are exploiting it, that's a problem. If teams aren't exploiting it, then it's a non-issue so close it anyways since we're better off without it. Case closed

 

[AndreRoy]

The way I see it. If you are good enough to play in the playoffs (tougher hockey)you are good enough to play two days before the playoffs in usually meaningless games. Forces your team to take that into account for the trade deadline if they have to dress you one game during the season.

The problem with your argument is Kucherov wasn’t good enough to play in the playoffs either - he cut his recovery short and played injured precisely because it was the playoffs. So all you accomplish with your proposed rule is forcing guys with legitimate injuries who may be able to play at some point in the postseason (even if it’s not until the Finals should their team make it that far) to cut their recoveries even shorter in order to be eligible to play should they recover in time. In practice you’ll have more guys playing who really shouldn’t, and others who are still unable even to skate dressing but not playing and forcing their teammates to play shorthanded; the result will be more injuries.

I do agree that the crap Vegas (and Chicago before them) pulled needs to be stopped, but I’m not sure how you do that without punishing the players with legitimate injuries. Some sort of postseason salary cap would probably be the best option but it’s not as simple as most think.

 

[avsfan9]

Totally agree salary cap should count in the playoffs

 

[AndreRoy]

Was just a coincidence that Kucherov missed the regular season in 20/21 and was ready for game 1 of the playoffs (said nobody ever).

Yeah, it’s not like an ultra-competitive elite athlete would ever cut his recovery short and play (clearly) injured in the playoffs.

 

[AndreRoy]

Totally agree salary cap should count in the playoffs

Here’s where it gets tricky though: the Vegas/Chicago cap circumvention issue aside, because cap space accrues over the course of a season teams routinely add players at the deadline whose full cap hits they could not afford had those players been on their rosters from the beginning of the season. I agree in principle with some sort of cap for postseason rosters to prevent cheating, but it’s difficult to see how you can do that without also killing the current TDL paradigm.

 

[Ligue]

The best solution I believe is this :
Players with a cap hit above the maximum buriable (I believe is something around 1m) have to be activated for the last game of the season to be eligible to play in the playoffs. Injured players can be activated.

 

[Jared Dunn]

Fair, but what’s happening now is that it encourages guys to not play even if they are healthy.

The way I see it. If you are good enough to play in the playoffs (tougher hockey)you are good enough to play two days before the playoffs in usually meaningless games. Forces your team to take that into account for the trade deadline if they have to dress you one game during the season.

I do think there's something to be done about it just personally think that opens up a new problem in itself. I think the on ice roster needing to be cap compliant in playoffs is probably the best way to at least mitigate the issue without creating another one