Seravalli: Vegas Knights are now in the market for a big time top 6 forward and more ( Guentzel)

[Commander Clueless]

I disagree. I'm not saying it's not better as it's a small step better. But it won't stop what we see happening. Teams with dead cap players will just get a "Get out of jail free card".

It would in effect allow teams to bury poor contracts come playoff time for better ones.

Player X makes 10 mill on his 8 year deal and is 40 years old in year 8. He's cooked and barely even plays.

Meanwhile player Y at 12 million goes on LTIR in a Kucherov/Stone type situation (will miracle heal in time for game 1)

Now they trade for player Z at 11 million.

They are cap compliant with player X and Z on the roster so long as Y is on LTIR.

Playoffs day 1 comes.
Player Y comes off LTIR, player X is sat to be cap compliant, player Z is plays.

You could even go through the exercise with player X just getting magically hurt and going to Robidas island as well.

Would be interesting to see and I do agree it's better than what's currently happening. But my point is they'll just find ways to get around it as well.

While I do see your point, I don't think you can fully avoid the ability to use conveniently timed injuries to your advantage... Not while keeping the intended ability to replace injured players in season.

It's difficult to avoid "addition by subtraction" scenarios when contracts are guaranteed and players' performance can radically change for a variety of reasons.

As you say though that is better than the scenario that exists now, where a team could simply use all three players in the playoffs.

The faking or misreporting of injuries is already against the rules and is on the NHL to enforce. We as fans never truly know the full extent of that discussion obviously.

 

[TheBeard]

I'd argue Nick Suzuki was a pretty good pick.

And they've frankly drafted well enough for their prospects to be deemed good trade pieces. They don't win the cup if other teams don't like Brannstrom and Krebs. The highest they've picked since expansion other than Krebs at 17th is 29th. Getting guys like Korczak is about what you expect from teams in that situation.

I meant picks on their own roster. As for the prospects, sure they're first round picks. They traded all of them before they had a chance to develop and I'd say out of all the guys they drafted high (Suzuki, Glass, Brannstrom, Krebs, Brisson) only one of them has actually shown they can be a decent piece (Dean and Edstrom too early to tell). If you're relying on Korczak and Cormier to lead the way in the future then the team is in deeeeep trouble.

 

[TheBeard]

The NHL can’t force medical decisions on players, and hockey historically has fostered a culture of expecting players to play injured.

I think that's why it's an easy loophole to exploit. It's a bad look for the league if they basically told a team that player X is healthy enough to play regardless if they are or aren't. The league would rather give the team the benefit of the doubt rather than risk the bad press.