Unless Ericsson is going to be out for at least 10 games
and 24 days, the wings have no reason to put Ericsson on LTIR. Also, other than the cap relief function of the LTIR, there's no real functional difference between IR and LTIR other than IR claims can be applied retroactively.
For example, say a player is hurt Wednesday in practice but the team isn't sure if he'll be ready to go for a game on Friday. Friday shows up and he can't go, but they think he'll be ready by the following Thursday. They can retroactively start his 7 day IR clock back to Wednesday so he'll be able to come off the IR and play the following week. LTIR you can't backdate like that.
Insurance, if the team has it on a specific player, will kick in for either LTIR
or IR. It's not a guarantee that every player is covered, though. And I'm just guessing that for something like a chronic condition, coverage might be especially difficult to get. This is what
@The Zetterberg Era is getting at. The Wings might have insurance on Ericsson, but that doesn't mean he has to go on LTIR for it to kick in. The IR is fine, and the Wings will put a claim in on it.