NHL may force teams to respect salary cap in playoffs

The long-term injured list is a godsend for many NHL teams. It allows teams to avoid having their payroll affected by the heavy contracts of players who are unable to play for most or all of a season.

The Canadiens are taking advantage of this with the contract of Carey Price, who hasn’t played since 2022, but whose contract runs until 2026.

Some teams take advantage of this by placing excellent players with big contracts on the long-term injured list before the trade deadline. This allows them to add depth for the playoffs with the money available.

And then poof, the injured player is miraculously back at the start of the playoffs, with the salary cap no longer a consideration. The situations of Mark Stone and Nikita Kucherov come to mind.

The good news for NHL fans is that this kind of situation could quickly become a thing of the past. According to Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic, the NHL is on the case.

Chris Tanev’s Iffy Contract Sparks Debate About NHL LTIR Rules https://t.co/myZzvck2Fv#THW #HockeyTwitter

– The Hockey Writers (@TheHockeyWriter) July 30, 2024

Duhatschek reports that NHL officials have asked teams to investigate whether forcing teams to respect the salary cap in the playoffs might be a good idea.

The problem is, this was just a discussion among NHL executives, and the rule is not expected to change until the next collective agreement.

The question is whether teams should also be penalized for contracts that lead almost automatically to the long-term injured list.

The Maple Leafs, for example, should take advantage of this rule bending with their new contract with Chris Tanev.

Tanev, 34, has agreed to a contract that will add $4.5 million to the Leafs’ payroll for… six years! He’ll be 40 at the end of the deal.

We’d like to believe that Tanev will give it his all until the end, but we highly doubt he’ll be playing in the NHL until he’s 40. And Tanev isn’t to blame here, because it’s clear that no one would have offered him such a long contract elsewhere.

The problem here is that Tanev hasn’t even played a single game with the Maple Leafs yet, and everyone already expects him to be unable to play before this one’s over.

In addition to adding the salary cap rule in the playoffs, the NHL should have veto power over contracts that are deemed “too at risk of becoming a contract that will end up on the long-term injured list”.