[News] And so begins the end... (or: Vegas can eat a giant D)

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Looking at Vegas' cap situation, is Riley Smith the likely target to shed cap? $5M cap hit, last year of his contract.

Yes, but everyone knows it and he’ll be hardest to get rid of as a rental. He’s also one of the few that’s got no NTC.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by cannon7

Looking at Vegas' cap situation, is Riley Smith the likely target to shed cap? $5M cap hit, last year of his contract.

They won't have to. Patches will have a setback and so will Martinez until the playoffs begin. TB has set the precedent and now we will see this LTIR abuse by at least one team every year.

[GhostCookie]

Originally Posted by ComixZone

"Oh no, we're bumping up against the cap and can't fit players in...oh wait a second, here go take that optional surgery you can get to help address a minor issue, and we'll see you opening night for the playoffs".

Rotating players through plastic surgery to keep them off the cap until playoffs.

"Jack Eichel is back skating with the Vegas Knights, and Jim, I don't think I have seen a better nose in the NHL. It really goes with that facelift he got last season!"

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

Last part is wrong.

If you add up all of Vegas contracts and pro-rated them for games played already, they will need to shed about 5 million in cap space to activate Kane, or have player(s) on LTIR totaling at least that 5M in contracts - because the salary of players on LTIR are effectively not counted against the cap.

The salary of players on LTIR is counted against the cap. You're just allowed to exceed the cap to pay replacement players. But if you do, you have zero cap space and it does not accrue from day to day.

At present, the Vegas Golden Knights are $11.8 million over the cap according to CapFriendly. They have just under $16 million worth of players on LTIR – Eichel, Martinez, and Bischoff. The only one they could activate without cutting salary somewhere on the roster is Bischoff. They would need to get $1 million off the cap to activate Martinez, which means cutting a minimum-salary plug isn't enough.

At the deadline, Vegas will still have zero cap space and they still won't be able to activate Eichel. Given that he is already skating, they will have do a hell of a selling job to keep him on IR until the end of the season.

And no, I do not for a moment buy the conspiracy theory about Kucherov. The timing of his return was mighty convenient, but he came back exactly when he was expected to based on his doctors' initial prognosis. The Lightning did not arrange that on purpose and did not have to fake anything. Keeping multiple healthy players out of the lineup on LTIR is in a whole different class and we have never seen anyone attempt it yet. I don't believe Vegas is dumb enough to try, or that they would get away with it if they did. Thirty-one other teams have a vested interest in seeing that they do not.

[Roof-Daddy]

Well on their way to another division title despite boat loads of injuries and they still haven't played a game with their newly acquired 25 year old franchise C yet.

Must be nice

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Draug

I was thinking about this the other day. Wondering which team might be first to decide that only 3 lines are needed and not 4. Might it be better to just have no 4th line and use that cap space for a better 3 lines. Surely 9-10 players could absorb 6ish minutes of ice time.

Is it mandated by the CBA that a team must have 12F and 6D on the roster?

This is an interesting idea, even if it boils down to not carrying healthy scratches and living with it if you lose someone on game day and play one man short.

Regularly dressing less than you're allowed seems like a recipe for disaster in the event of early game injury(s), but I don't think a 3 line structure is a crazy idea.

Flames 4th liners play about 9 mins a night, so you've got 27 minutes to distribute:

Add 4:30 to 3rd liners to take them from ~13 to 17:30.
Add 3:00 to 2nd liners to take them from ~16 to 19:00
Add 1:30 seconds to 1st line takes them to the 20-22 min range

I'd consider playing 7 D, 1 PK specialist, and 1 swiss army knife who can take spot duty on any line and also kill penalties. If each of these plays about 4:30 per night you can cut the times to add above in half.


It would get tough in multi-OT playoff games, but teams seem to shorten their benches then anyways...perhaps you'd be even better conditioned with this approach.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Well on their way to another division title despite boat loads of injuries and they still haven't played a game with their newly acquired 25 year old franchise C yet.

Must be nice

Meh, 8 points up on the Flames after having played SIX more games and not an all road schedule.

[ComixZone]

Originally Posted by dino7c

Meh, 8 points up on the Flames after having played SIX more games and not an all road schedule.

Vegas has also had Karlsson (15 games), Stone (15+ games), Pacioretty (20+ games), and Patrick (30 games) all miss significant time.

They're a much better team than the Flames. Where would we be if we had Johnny miss 15 games, Tkachuk miss 20+ games, and Lindholm (or Backlund depending on how you view Karlsson) miss 15 or so games?

[dino7c]

We'll see where it all shakes down, they can have the division anyway...I will take that 2/3 matchup with home ice thanks

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Draug

I was thinking about this the other day. Wondering which team might be first to decide that only 3 lines are needed and not 4. Might it be better to just have no 4th line and use that cap space for a better 3 lines. Surely 9-10 players could absorb 6ish minutes of ice time.

Is it mandated by the CBA that a team must have 12F and 6D on the roster?

It is mandated in the CBA (Article 16.4) that, except in a roster emergency, a team cannot have fewer than 18 skaters and 2 goalies on their active roster.

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by getbak

It is mandated in the CBA (Article 16.4) that, except in a roster emergency, a team cannot have fewer than 18 skaters and 2 goalies on their active roster.

Tell that to the Oilers