The NHL has warned its teams that trades involving injured players will be “closely scrutinized” for potential cap circumvention ahead of the March 3 trade deadline, a source told ESPN.
In a memo sent to all 32 teams on Tuesday morning, the league called out trades involving injured players that an acquiring team could keep on long-term injured reserve (LTIR) until the start of the playoffs.
While placing a player on the LTIR doesn’t remove a player’s salary cap hit from the overall team cap, it does allow the team cap relief to replace that salary. Once the regular season ends, however, a player can be activated from LTIR without any salary cap implications, as teams can be over the cap in the postseason.
The most famous example of this was in 2021, when the Tampa Bay Lightning kept star winger Nikita Kucherov on LTIR during the pandemic-shortened 56-game season, earning salary cap relief. He returned from injury in Game 1 of the first round and had 32 points in 23 playoff games as the team won a second straight Stanley Cup. The Lightning were $18 million over the cap in the playoffs.
“The league is saying that if you acquire a player with no intention of playing him at all, and there’s any way factually to prove he could play, they’re going to investigate,” said one NHL team executive.
Besides investigating a player’s health for long-term injured reserve status, the NHL may also scrutinize a team’s salary cap situation and roster contract count when a trade for an injured player is made. Would they be able to add the player to the roster if he comes off LTIR?
“You have to have room to bring the player back if he’s coming back,” said a source.
Among the players that could be impacted by this added scrutiny are Anaheim Ducks center Adam Henrique and Columbus Blue Jackets forward Gustav Nyquist, both of whom are currently on injured reserve.