Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Reeeeead
Otherwise, then I dont understand why the Hawks bothered to trade Hossa's contract... I believe it was to ensure they could start the season with the cap space, rather than once the season starts, when they have missed out on using that cap space prior to season start.
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LTIR isn't free cap. You can exceed the cap by the equivalent (for simplicity if you were at max cap) but you no longer bank that additional cap while the player is on the LTIR.
So if a team starts the season 4M under the cap (based on full year projection) and nothing changes, by the time they get to the trade deadline (for simplicity assume it is 3/4th of the season) they have banked 3M in cap. They can therefore get a player who would cost 3M over 1/4th of the season, or a player with a cap-hit of 12M.
Now if that same team needed to place a player on LTIR making 5M, they could replace him with 5M, sure, but they are now 'exceeding' the cap. Come the trade deadline they would not be able to acquire a player making 12M because they haven't banked any cap.