Landeskog to have knee surgery

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

What are you talking about? Landeskog is literally doing exactly that. He has a bit of discomfort in his knee, players play through that all the time and get them fixed in the offseason.

Nothing wrong with wantung to be completely healthy for a long playoff run.

[thymebalm]

Maybe Monahan needs to have a surgery too to get healthy and give us cap space for a deadline pickup…

[MrMike]

Originally Posted by thymebalm

Maybe Monahan needs to have a surgery too to get healthy and give us cap space for a deadline pickup…

Ingrown toe nail, LTIR

Sorry I mean Lower Body Injury.

[dissentowner]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Nothing wrong with wantung to be completely healthy for a long playoff run.

Ya we get it, you don't care our competition is circumventing the cap to get an advantage. Not shocking at all.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by The Cobra

Nothing wrong with wantung to be completely healthy for a long playoff run.

Not at all.

But how about having a playoff salary cap?

[Johnny Makarov]

Remember when the Avs built a super team by getting Selanne and Kariya for $12/hour?

How did that work out? lol

[Inferno]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Not at all.

But how about having a playoff salary cap?

Yep, if say Vegas wants to have Eichel and Stone playing they can. They just need to shed 10 million or so even if that means playing with a short bench.

[Stampede2TheCup]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

It is legit but it is something that "has been nagging him ". So it is something players would normally get done in the offseason, nothing that would prevent him from playing bit this way he can get it done now, rest up for a playoff run, and give his team an extra bunch of cap money to spend in more assets at the deadline. This is how teams are going to constantly get around the cap every year.

How can you be so certain this is something that could or should have waited? Does the mere existence of a third party using the phrase “has been nagging him” specifically only mean minor things that can wait but are also guaranteed not to suddenly get worse? Have the Avalanche already used his LTIR space and announced Landeskog will definitely NOT return until playoffs?

The season is wearing on and so are all of the players’ bodies right now. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions based on the timing of an injury and it’s estimated recovery timeline. Players are so often just trying to survive until to off-season. Is it not possible that doctors have now legitimately assessed that if he were to keep playing that his knee would likely be at 70-80% going into the playoffs instead of 90-95% like they had hoped or some other legitimate scenario?

They haven’t used the cap space yet so it seems a bit premature to be angry about this cap circumvention in this case as of yet. I’m not disputing that the current rules leave some room for abuse: I’m not against some sort of rule changes to address it either, but they can’t be so overly oppressive that they hamper legitimate injury situations either.

[Aegypticus]

Is there any reason it wouldn't work to just make a rule that the roster a team has dressed for each playoff game has to be cap compliant?

Sure, go ahead and make a team that's $10 million over the cap, but when the playoffs come around, you have to sit $10 million of salary. It could be it one superstar, or you can play 3 scrubs short. Your choice.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Aegypticus

Is there any reason it wouldn't work to just make a rule that the roster a team has dressed for each playoff game has to be cap compliant?

Sure, go ahead and make a team that's $10 million over the cap, but when the playoffs come around, you have to sit $10 million of salary. It could be it one superstar, or you can play 3 scrubs short. Your choice.

It would also punish teams who played under the cap for long stretches during the season to create cap space that allowed them to add higher-priced players at the deadline and still remain compliant.

However, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a formula to calculate a cap cushion for those teams based on their real cap use up to the trade deadline to allow them to exceed a playoff roster cap.

[Buff]

Originally Posted by Aegypticus

Is there any reason it wouldn't work to just make a rule that the roster a team has dressed for each playoff game has to be cap compliant?

Sure, go ahead and make a team that's $10 million over the cap, but when the playoffs come around, you have to sit $10 million of salary. It could be it one superstar, or you can play 3 scrubs short. Your choice.

They're not going to address this alleged loophole just because some tinfoil hat wearing fans are crying foul.

[Aegypticus]

Originally Posted by getbak

It would also punish teams who played under the cap for long stretches during the season to create cap space that allowed them to add higher-priced players at the deadline and still remain compliant.

However, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a formula to calculate a cap cushion for those teams based on their real cap use up to the trade deadline to allow them to exceed a playoff roster cap.

That's a fair point, although I'm not sure I'm on board with the way teams can bank cap space, but that's another can of worms entirely. For such a simple concept, the cap sure has gotten complicated over time.

Originally Posted by Buff

They're not going to address this alleged loophole just because some tinfoil hat wearing fans are crying foul.

Entirely putting aside the talk of "tinfoil hats" and loopholes and conspiracies, as a fan, I was sold on the salary cap as a way to ensure competitive fairness. It really doesn't feel fair when some teams seem to get to play with a much higher payroll than others.

I know some will disagree with me, but I personally have a little asterisk in my head next to Tampa's most recent Cup win. I don't have to believe that it's intentional cap circumvention to think that it's kind of bull####.

[Stampede2TheCup]

Originally Posted by getbak

It would also punish teams who played under the cap for long stretches during the season to create cap space that allowed them to add higher-priced players at the deadline and still remain compliant.

However, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a formula to calculate a cap cushion for those teams based on their real cap use up to the trade deadline to allow them to exceed a playoff roster cap.

I’m curious of your thoughts on a couple spitball ideas because you seem to know the salary cap rules so well.

Would it possibly make sense to have the salary cap in place for dressed players in the playoffs, but possibly allow the cap something like 5% higher for the every team across the board in the playoffs? What about some sort of cap penalty in upcoming years for going over certain cap thresholds in playoffs?

What about a rule whereby if a player is on IR continuously from before the trade deadline through the end of the regular season, then they would be ineligible to suit up for a certain amount of playoff games?

I’m not sure how great of a need or opportunity there is for a rule change. I’d lean towards just deterring more egregious cases of abuse rather than trying to abolish any every potential case of abuse. I think there are already a lot of natural deterrents as well as risks to abusing this supposed loophole. I just don’t see it as rampant or easy to abuse as some others, but I still do see enough give some consideration to a rule change.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Not at all.

But how about having a playoff salary cap?

That I agree with. I’m not sure why there isn’t.

Other than the fact that it would make the trade deadline a thing of the past.

[The Cobra]

Originally Posted by dissentowner

Ya we get it, you don't care our competition is circumventing the cap to get an advantage. Not shocking at all.

You seem certain that they are circumventing the cap. You must have inside knowledge I assume.

And while I have little doubt they will make a trade, it hasn’t happened yet.

Make no mistake, you could be correct, but none of us knows for sure.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Yep, if say Vegas wants to have Eichel and Stone playing they can. They just need to shed 10 million or so even if that means playing with a short bench.

They'd also have to make the playoffs. Based on point percentages - they are behind Dallas for the last wild card spot right now.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by getbak

It would also punish teams who played under the cap for long stretches during the season to create cap space that allowed them to add higher-priced players at the deadline and still remain compliant.

However, it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a formula to calculate a cap cushion for those teams based on their real cap use up to the trade deadline to allow them to exceed a playoff roster cap.

This is just “acceptable” cap circumvention though. It’s goal is to be icing a roster that as a higher regular season salary than the cap to improve playoff chances. If the NHL wants to address it the cap should be a game day cap rather than a season cap. This will make the trade deadline less exciting.

From an economic point of view since revenues determine actually salaries of players it doesn’t matter. The owners will still pay the same amount in Salary so the system still works. The question is whether it looks bad enough to address.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Aegypticus

T...I know some will disagree with me, but I personally have a little asterisk in my head next to Tampa's most recent Cup win. I don't have to believe that it's intentional cap circumvention to think that it's kind of bull####.

This became a big talking-point last year, but I suspect it was not the first time a NHL team played in the playoffs with an on-paper roster that was over the salary cap. I would imagine that most winners would also qualify for your hypothetical little asterisk.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

This became a big talking-point last year, but I suspect it was not the first time a NHL team played in the playoffs with an on-paper roster that was over the salary cap. I would imagine that most winners would also qualify for your hypothetical little asterisk.

Chicago did it one year. They put Kane on the IR with a broken collar bone. Added Vermette, Timonen at the trade deadline. Kane was suddenly ready to go in the 1st game of the post season.

From 2016:
https://www.tsn.ca/gms-would-like-an...phole-1.454158

Tampa was the first team that really pushed it though. Kane had a broken collarbone and the time-line would maybe be a week or 2 before the end of the season. Who knows with Kucherov, but unlikely that long term of an injury was just magically ready to be back when the playoffs start. Colorado and Vegas are more in the Chicago avenue where an injury occurred and they may be able to take advantage of it. You'd have to think Vegas would bring Stone back if they could since they are in trouble to make the playoffs with their current roster. Colorado is sitting pretty where they could sit half their team and still finish first.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by btimbit

If you can't beat them join them. Surely Monahan has some nagging injury that will take a few weeks to heal

And all next season.