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Originally Posted by OptimalTates
You're going to have back that up with facts because that's not what the CBA said when it was discussed around Eichel/Vegas.
The CBA is explicit actually about the opposite. If a player is deemed eligible to play but the LTIR period has not passed, they are not able to lace them up until the payroll is fixed.
You're right that the NHLPA would file a grievance, but they wouldn't alter the CBA within a nanosecond, it would be drawn out. The NHL has known of the LTIR issues since Kane and has intentionally not altered them throughout the Kucherov and Eichel saga, they knew of the issues around it and have decided not to fix it.
When I said them the rules, I actually meant them the rules. Not my own belief like you.
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Kucherov and Eichel were supportive of being on the LTIR. In Eichel’s case he was unwilling to get medical treatment to get off the LTIR and wanted alternative treatment. Neither of your two examples were circumstances where the player was fit to play, wanted to play and was prevented by the club. You read a requirement to get salary below the cap as a right to leave a player on the LTIR in perpetuity. I am sure that if a player took it to arbitration, it would be a quick and swift victory for them. A team has lots of options to get below the cap. They could trade the player in question along with a 1st round pick to probably almost any team in the league and get below the cap. They could take a player off their existing roster and trade them. There is no reasonable excuse as to why they could not become cap compliant within hours of an arbitrators decision.
That exact same section that you cited, a paragraph before says that a team is allowed to make a transaction during the Roster Freeze period under Article 13 in order to become cap compliant. It is the only time that a team can move a player during the holiday roster freeze. A reasonable interpretation of that section when a player is willing to play would be that the team has to immediately become cap compliant so the player can play somewhere, not that they can just keep the player on LTIR.