NHL Salary Cap Manipulation - the "Kucherov" Plan

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

It was only a year ago when the Tampa Bay Lightning pissed off fans all across the NHL by their salary cap manipulation with Nikita Kucherov, and used it to roll to the Stanley Cup Finals victory.

Before the start of the season the Lightning were a good $10M (?) over the salary cap but did their own kind of manipulation when Kucherov had offseason surgery, started the season on LTIR (Long Term Injured Reserve), and thereby not counting against the cap. The salary cap is no longer in effect for the post season, Kucherov miraculously is healthy for the postseason and Tampa played the postseason with a roster that was well over $10M over the salary cap. Your Stanley Cup Champions.

Fast forward to this season, the Vegas Golden Knights traded for star Center Jack Eichel from Buffalo a month or so into the season, with Eichel needing Artificial Disc Replacement surgery on his neck. Speculation has been rampant over who the VGK would have to unload by the time Eichel was healthy enough to play. After the trade, Eichel immediately had the somewhat experimental surgery that no NHL player had ever had before.

As it stands today, Eichel has been cleared for full contact practice and his debut in the VGK lineup appears imminent. The VGK have ranked somewhere in the top 2-3 in the entire league this season for missed games to injury, and games missed proportion to salary cap hit (big name players missing massive chunks of games), etc. It's been a MASH unit most of the season.

A few days ago, VGK Captain Mark Stone was sent back to LTIR for a recurring back injury. Stone has missed games on 4 different occasions this year as a result of the back issues. Instantly, speculation is that VGK will "pull a Kucherov" and leave Stone on LTIR through the regular season, thereby ELIMINATING their massive salary cap concerns, and somehow be ready for the postseason.

This will be one interesting drama to watch. The NHL fans for pretty much the entire league already hate VGK, this would send their hatred through the roof, especially if they win the cup. You can already find articles across the interwebs about what MIGHT happen...

NHL Time To Reconsider The LTIR Salary Cap Exemption

I'm not entirely sure this is what the VGK plan is. Even if it somehow was to leave Stone on LTIR and solve their cap issues, (and I'm obviously biased) I don't think this situation is nearly as egregious as the Kucherov situation. Stone clearly hasn't been 100% the entire season and anyone that's had a back injury would tell you that guessing when you're going to be 100% is a futile exercise.

I expect the rage across the league to be ramped up to 11 on this one.

EDIT: Shit. Put this on the wrong Board. Mods, if you could put this on the other OT Board?

 

[GopherJake]

Interesting post. Wasn’t aware of this, but pretty smart thinking. Need to clean that loophole up. But if a guy is injured, there should be space cleared. But disregarding for playoffs seems ripe for manipulating.

 

[Winnipegopher]

It was only a year ago when the Tampa Bay Lightning pissed off fans all across the NHL by their salary cap manipulation with Nikita Kucherov, and used it to roll to the Stanley Cup Finals victory.

Before the start of the season the Lightning were a good $10M (?) over the salary cap but did their own kind of manipulation when Kucherov had offseason surgery, started the season on LTIR (Long Term Injured Reserve), and thereby not counting against the cap. The salary cap is no longer in effect for the post season, Kucherov miraculously is healthy for the postseason and Tampa played the postseason with a roster that was well over $10M over the salary cap. Your Stanley Cup Champions.

Fast forward to this season, the Vegas Golden Knights traded for star Center Jack Eichel from Buffalo a month or so into the season, with Eichel needing Artificial Disc Replacement surgery on his neck. Speculation has been rampant over who the VGK would have to unload by the time Eichel was healthy enough to play. After the trade, Eichel immediately had the somewhat experimental surgery that no NHL player had ever had before.

As it stands today, Eichel has been cleared for full contact practice and his debut in the VGK lineup appears imminent. The VGK have ranked somewhere in the top 2-3 in the entire league this season for missed games to injury, and games missed proportion to salary cap hit (big name players missing massive chunks of games), etc. It's been a MASH unit most of the season.

A few days ago, VGK Captain Mark Stone was sent back to LTIR for a recurring back injury. Stone has missed games on 4 different occasions this year as a result of the back issues. Instantly, speculation is that VGK will "pull a Kucherov" and leave Stone on LTIR through the regular season, thereby ELIMINATING their massive salary cap concerns, and somehow be ready for the postseason.

This will be one interesting drama to watch. The NHL fans for pretty much the entire league already hate VGK, this would send their hatred through the roof, especially if they win the cup. You can already find articles across the interwebs about what MIGHT happen...

NHL Time To Reconsider The LTIR Salary Cap Exemption

I'm not entirely sure this is what the VGK plan is. Even if it somehow was to leave Stone on LTIR and solve their cap issues, (and I'm obviously biased) I don't think this situation is nearly as egregious as the Kucherov situation. Stone clearly hasn't been 100% the entire season and anyone that's had a back injury would tell you that guessing when you're going to be 100% is a futile exercise.

I expect the rage across the league to be ramped up to 11 on this one.

EDIT: Shit. Put this on the wrong Board. Mods, if you could put this on the other OT Board?

If fans get angry, and they will, it should be with the league. After the Kucherov situation the NHL could have amended the salary cap rules (I think? Maybe it has to be negotiated with the NHLPA in a CBA). All they have to prohibit activating LTIR players for a certain number of playoff games (7 maybe? No one is getting to risk losing a round).

Anyway Vegas should do what they need to do to win. If the rules allow it, they should exploit them. There are about 10-15 other big market teams that would do exactly the same. I am not even sure it is really wrong. Kucherov was hurt last year- yes, they didn't rush him back- but he was hurt. Like you say, Stone seems to be suffering this year. I look forward to seeing Eichel with a real team, he should be really good.

Anyway, my personal belief is Vegas doesn't have the goaltending to do much in the playoffs although playing in the weakest division in the NHL is a bit of an advantage for the first two rounds. That said, Colorado looks unbeatable to me in the west (although I said that last year and they flamed out pretty quickly).

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

If fans get angry, and they will, it should be with the league. After the Kucherov situation the NHL could have amended the salary cap rules (I think? Maybe it has to be negotiated with the NHLPA in a CBA). All they have to prohibit activating LTIR players for a certain number of playoff games (7 maybe? No one is getting to risk losing a round).

Anyway Vegas should do what they need to do to win. If the rules allow it, they should exploit them. There are about 10-15 other big market teams that would do exactly the same. I am not even sure it is really wrong. Kucherov was hurt last year- yes, they didn't rush him back- but he was hurt. Like you say, Stone seems to be suffering this year. I look forward to seeing Eichel with a real team, he should be really good.

Anyway, my personal belief is Vegas doesn't have the goaltending to do much in the playoffs although playing in the weakest division in the NHL is a bit of an advantage for the first two rounds. That said, Colorado looks unbeatable to me in the west (although I said that last year and they flamed out pretty quickly).

This is the key point that I have read in regards to this: This was collectively bargained for by the players and league. Hard to do a lot of bitching on any side.

Fair or unfair, there will be a lot of crying and screaming if this IS how it goes down. At the end of the day, you would still have to have a player like Mark Stone, who is the only Captain VGK has ever had, willing to sit out for games, weeks, etc when he believes he's 100% ready to play. I'm just not sure he's that kind of guy. With a back injury, it's impossible to tell how serious it is or how long he's out.

I'm still not sure, I think they end up trading one of their 4-5 guys who are making $5M or so. Problem with that is, 3 of those guys are what makes up the original Golden Misfits line of Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith and ditching another original misfit won't go over well with the fans.

You're right about the goaltending, I hate to say it because I'm a Lehner fan. The team hasn't done him any favors, the VGK team defense this year has been by far the worst since they entered the league. Missing Alec Martinez on the back end for most of the season (after taking a skate to the face against the Wild) has not helped their defense at all.

Still no clue what the lineup looks like when Eichel DOES play; I've seen a million combinations thrown around. Hopefully find out sooner than later, he could play as early as this week against Colorado

 

[Ope3]

NHL has always been a bit unique, cases in point with the North Stars (though as rookies really wouldn't impact the salary cap substantially under current rules).

1981 - Neal Broten finishes up with the Gophers, signs on to play the final 3 regular season games but then went on to play in 19 Playoff games that spring, getting 1 Goal and 7 Assists.

1989 - Mike Modano signs on and makes his NHL debut in the Playoffs, playing in 2 games before ever skating in a regular season game.

I guess for the Twins it happened as well with Alex Kirilloff in 2020. Not sure when, but I believe sometime this century the MLB rule changed to only needing to be on the 40 Man Roster by Sept 1 (instead of the 25).

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Not a huge hockey fan. just looked at the standings and I see Vegas is leading its division, so they've done pretty well despite the injuries.

If they can add Eichel for the playoffs, that would be interesting.

the Wild and Vegas in the Western Conf. finals...........?

 

[TruthSeeker]

NHL has always been a bit unique, cases in point with the North Stars (though as rookies really wouldn't impact the salary cap substantially under current rules).

1981 - Neal Broten finishes up with the Gophers, signs on to play the final 3 regular season games but then went on to play in 19 Playoff games that spring, getting 1 Goal and 7 Assists.

1989 - Mike Modano signs on and makes his NHL debut in the Playoffs, playing in 2 games before ever skating in a regular season game.

I guess for the Twins it happened as well with Alex Kirilloff in 2020. Not sure when, but I believe sometime this century the MLB rule changed to only needing to be on the 40 Man Roster by Sept 1 (instead of the 25).

The Gophers lost to the Baders in the championship game because the Broten brothers were up late the night before the big game negotiating NHL contracts.

 

[Ope3]

The Gophers lost to the Baders in the championship game because the Broten brothers were up late the night before the big game negotiating NHL contracts.

I thought at the time that Aaron would have a prolific NHL career based on what he did at the U.

Not bad, 12 seasons total, 641 games and 162 goals, but essentially a journeyman by age 29.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Not a huge hockey fan. just looked at the standings and I see Vegas is leading its division, so they've done pretty well despite the injuries.

If they can add Eichel for the playoffs, that would be interesting.

the Wild and Vegas in the Western Conf. finals...........?

Well, that answers one question...

Apparently Eichel will make his VGK debut Wednesday against Colorado! Woo Hoo!!! Captain Mark Stone to the LTIR, at least for now. $10M guy added to the lineup, and a $9.5M guy going to Long Term Injured Reserve.

First game for Eichel and a shuffled lineup, again, I don't expect it to be pretty against a Colorado team that is hotter than hell. But I'm damn sure going to go and find out!

 

[Ope3]

Well, that answers one question...

Apparently Eichel will make his VGK debut Wednesday against Colorado! Woo Hoo!!! Captain Mark Stone to the LTIR, at least for now. $10M guy added to the lineup, and a $9.5M guy going to Long Term Injured Reserve.

First game for Eichel and a shuffled lineup, again, I don't expect it to be pretty against a Colorado team that is hotter than hell. But I'm damn sure going to go and find out!

A Knight's win would help the Wild in terms of the Division race.

 

[Fleckoff]

Vegas is in a trash division so they should make the conference finals regardless, even with Stone, I think there backend will have a tough time with Colorado, heck even Minnesota pushed them to seven last year and they've gotten better as well.

 

[Wally]

Interesting post. Wasn’t aware of this, but pretty smart thinking. Need to clean that loophole up. But if a guy is injured, there should be space cleared. But disregarding for playoffs seems ripe for manipulating.

Wild got F'd for their smart thinking. They should force salary cap compliance in playoffs.

 

[Winnipegopher]

Lehner now hurt, sounds long term, and Vegas looks like they may have a hard time making the playoffs. Never understood why they chose Lehner over Fleury. Have to say, Vegas missing the playoffs in a garbage division/ conference will be fun to see (sorry Ogee).

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

Lehner now hurt, sounds long term, and Vegas looks like they may have a hard time making the playoffs. Never understood why they chose Lehner over Fleury. Have to say, Vegas missing the playoffs in a garbage division/ conference will be fun to see (sorry Ogee).

Just been one of the craziest seasons I've seen in a while. They've had generally $18-$25M in salary on Long Term Injured Reserve for pretty much the entire season. Never know who's going to be playing from one night to the next, need a program to watch the games.

I supported moving on from Fleury and was/am a Lehner fan, but his durability this year has been a disaster. I know at one point only one team in the NHL had lost more games to injury than VGK, I'd be surprised if they aren't #1 in that category by a mile now.

Tonight against Florida, they'll be without Mark Stone ($9.5M), Pacioretty ($7M), Lehner ($5M), R. Smith ($5M), Alec Martinez ($5.3M), B. McNabb ($2.5M), Janmark ($2M), along with Nic Hague and Nolan Patrick and Ben Hutton who are lower salary guys but starting lineup guys when healthy.

I think VGK, if they played it right, could be Sellers at the deadline and still be a Cup contender for 2022-23. I doubt they do that though.