I mentioned it a few days ago, but there have been some elite guys that have missed full seasons and they still end up elite when they come back in the playoffs. I still think the situation is BS and pretty clear circumvention. But nothing will be done about it. The fact that a person or two argued he would come back and fitting him in would be detrimental is laughable.
I don't mind the concept of LTIR in general. There are times where you have guys that are legitimately injured and can't ever play again. There are times where you have guys who get hurt in season and won't be back or may take a while to get back. I can see not wanting to punish those teams.
Teams, and it's not just Tampa, clearly don't use it to that spirit. Hell, Tampa also actively went out and acquired a bunch of guys on LTIR to help make things work. And while things like that aren't breaking the rules, they sure as hell are against the spirit of it. I think the Kucherov thing is closer to breaking them, though still probably only bending them, because I think it's a joke to think his exact ready to go date was day 1 of the playoffs. It's also pretty questionable to wait as late as they did to get the surgery done in the first place. Legit injury and surgery, but sketch AF all around to give themselves a better chance to win.