As Pierre LeBrun reported earlier this week, the NHL will discuss the possibility of extending the salary cap into the Stanley Cup playoffs and closing an infamous LTIR playoff loophole at the annual meeting of NHL team’s general managers, which is scheduled for the next Monday and Tuesday at Palm Beach, Florida.
GM meetings start Monday in Palm Beach. GMs to discuss the idea of extending salary cap into the Stanley Cup playoffs in the future; the NHL likely to discuss no-trade lists, and more in my latest ⤵️
via @TheAthletic https://t.co/0swgJ4OOhw
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 24, 2022
Reportedly, there’s a group of about ten general managers, who have been discussing this possibility over the past month. This topic has been submitted to be added to the agenda of the upcoming meeting by at least one general manager and the NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly is expected to open this discussion at the meeting. LeBrun, however, notes that even if all general managers will agree on extending salary cap into the postseason, the change will happen next year at the earliest and the NHLPA should also agree to this proposition [The Athletic, paid content]
Obviously, nothing would change for this year. Change never comes that fast. If this thing ever gets off the ground, it wouldn’t happen until next season at the earliest. And it should be noted, the very notion of extending the salary cap into the postseason is really a CBA matter that requires the NHLPA to sign off on it.
The Tampa Bay Lightning were one of the most recent teams, which used LTIR loophole. In 2021, the Lightning placed forward Nikita Kucherov, who just underwent a hip surgery, on LTIR, which resulted in Kucherov missing the whole regular season. That move allowed the Lightning to keep some important players and make some deals at the trade deadline, and by the time Kucherov returned for Game 1 of the first round against the Florida Panthers, the Lightning were significantly over the cap. The Vegas Golden Knights might be another team who’s going to use this loophole this season with Mark Stone, who’s currently on LTIR.
According to LeBrun, one of the proposed ideas is to allow teams to carry throughout the playoffs rosters, which exceeding the current cap, but their game day line up should be under the cap. For example, the Lightning had a $85.4 million roster on the ice for the Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final against the Montreal Canadiens, which is still over the cap.
I believe this is in fact one of the ideas the some of the GMs have. That the on -ice, game day playoff lineup is cap-compliant. So you dress a max $81.5 M lineup even though you may be carrying $90 M in players.
So a hybrid solution as Gord explains here ⤵️ https://t.co/1O7vqpITYM— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 25, 2022
Meanwhile, the next season salary cap is expected to jump by one million to $82.5 million, according to some last year’s reports.
As reported, #NHL salary cap will rise to $82.5 million next year (up $1 mil) with HRR projected at $5.2 billion.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) December 10, 2021
Lightning Links
The Syracuse Crunch lost to the Utica Comets on Friday night, Gage Goncalves scored the only goal for Syracuse.
On to the next one.
📝: https://t.co/lILlpPo4Yv pic.twitter.com/wAhNhnp9A2
— Syracuse Crunch (@SyracuseCrunch) March 26, 2022
The Orlando Solar Bears opened the weekend with a victory over the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
What a BEAR-y good night 🎉 #VICTOR10US
🎟: https://t.co/84Vs8gerw8 pic.twitter.com/Miwz9M2nY3
— Orlando Solar Bears (@OrlandoHockey) March 26, 2022
Hockey News
The results of another busy night in the NHL.
Four of five home teams skated to the win column Friday.#NHLStats: https://t.co/nOcwgzSLgN pic.twitter.com/kwrLPB1Ffs
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 26, 2022
The Montreal Canadiens have been officially eliminated from the playoff contention.
The Montreal Canadiens are the first team to be eliminated from 2021-2022 playoff contention.
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) March 26, 2022
The Minnesota Whitecaps and the Boston Pride advanced to the Isobel Cup semifinals.
The Boston Pride absolutely dominate and move on to the semifinals 🔥
📸: @michelle_jay3 #Isobel2022 pic.twitter.com/4tHKcRmUz7
— PHF (@PHF) March 25, 2022
The Minnesota Whitecaps punch their ticket to the semifinals! 🎟
📸: @michelle_jay3 #Isobel2022 pic.twitter.com/FzrtHxILkR
— PHF (@PHF) March 26, 2022
