Mark Stone returned to the Vegas Golden Knights’ lineup Monday night for the opener of their playoff series against the Dallas Stars — and you knew almost right away what was going to happen.
Yes this. Less than two minutes later, Stone opened the scoring for Vegas in what played out as a wild and entertaining back-and-forth game, which the Golden Knights won 4-3.
That’s what the playoffs are for. Exciting and competitive.
But Stone’s return immediately renewed scrutiny of the NHL’s long-term injured reserve rules — and how they are enforced.
Stone, Vegas’ captain and inspirational leader, had not played since the Feb. 18 game against the Nashville Predators, when he lacerated his spleen. Because Stone makes $9.5 million, the Golden Knights were able to put him on LTIR and free up enough salary cap space to make two major trades at the deadline, acquiring defenseman Noah Hanifin from the Calgary Flames and center Tomas Hertl of the San Jose Sharks. .
Hertl was already on LTIR himself – and not playing until the trade with the Sharks was completed, which meant his contract also didn’t officially count against Vegas’ cap until he was activated on the player list. This happened on April 8, in a game against the Vancouver Canucks, exactly one month after the Golden Knights made the trade. Hertl added Vegas’ second goal Monday night; Hanifin trapped them both.
Talk about adding insult to injury.
But most of the storm focused on Stone because last year a similar scenario played out, with Stone missing the end of the 2022-23 season, recovering from a back injury. It was, in fact, history repeating itself. Because Stone also wasn’t healthy enough to play the final game of last year’s regular season, but then he was medically cleared to play in the first game of the playoffs. Ultimately, he contributed 24 points in 22 games to the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup championship.
Although the NHL insists that it closely examines medical records and will punish a team if it cheats, the fact that it happened twice, in successive years, to Stone and the Golden Knights, seems entirely too coincidental for some on social media.
So what to do?
We’ve debated this topic endlessly before, and the most common practical solution – which has also been suggested by several NHL GMs over the years – is to change the rules applicable to LTIR and make it so that each team meets the caps for each playoff game, which they are not required to do at this time. This would be a simple solution that could alleviate the anger and suspicion surrounding the current system.
Question: If teams had to play under the cap for every playoff game, what would Vegas have looked like with Stone, Hertl and Hanifin all in on opening night against Dallas?
Before adding up the totals, what is your estimate?
Do they comply with the ceilings? Close to compliance? Or kilometers?
The correct one is b) close.
For the 20 Vegas players in the lineup against Dallas, salaries total $84.247 million, or $747,000 above the 2023-24 salary cap of $83.5 million.
If they had to meet their cap hit for Game 1, the Golden Knights could have done so by replacing one of their third lines, Brett Howden ($1.9 million) or Anthony Mantha ($2.85 million). ), by one of their three forwards who earn less than $1 million. In other words, they could have gotten under the number, with minimal difficulty.
It’s also worth noting that Vegas isn’t the only team in NHL playoff history to take advantage of the current rules when it comes to LTIR. Chicago, in 2014-15, did the same with Patrick Kane and won the Stanley Cup. And in 2020-21, Tampa Bay had arguably its best player, Nikita Kucherov, on LTIR for the entire regular season and activated him before Game 1 of that year’s playoffs. Kucherov showed no signs of rust – finished with 32 points in 23 games – and helped Tampa Bay win the Stanley Cup. So Vegas has company.
Two points to make here.
First, there is no doubt that the three aforementioned players who created an LTIR hot spot over the last decade were legitimately injured.
Second, Vegas wasn’t the only playoff team to aggressively use LTIR last season. According to CapFriendly, Toronto used LTIR the most. They are over the cap by $14.145 million. Tampa Bay was second, with $10.276 million. Vegas was next with $8.739 million. In total, 22 of the 32 NHL teams have used LTIR at some point. St. Louis had the lowest fees – just $12,349.
Medically, there is no way to completely or accurately tell when exactly a player is healthy enough to return from an injury. It’s always a multi-step process. Obtaining medical clearance to return to skating is the first step. Then a player is allowed to make contact. Afterwards, it becomes a question of conditioning.
Naturally, the moment of a return can be massaged a little in both directions. A few extra days of recovery – according to the “better safe than sorry” theory – may be prudent. Conversely, pushing a player away too quickly could lead to re-injury.
Most of the barking you saw on social media after Stone opened the scoring Monday night understandably focused on timing. It was just too much of a coincidence.
No one is that lucky, right?
And of course, the NHL completely denies there is a problem here. Whenever the subject is raised by the commissioner, Gary Bettman, or his deputy, Bill Daly, the inevitable explanation is something along the lines of: “We have confidence in the way we review medical records and do not believe that there is a monkey business. keep on going. »
In fact, “monkey business” isn’t a term you’ll hear from an NHL executive, even if that’s what he’s trying to communicate.
But Bettman and Daly are both lawyers. Deep down, they know that the one thing the NHL cannot risk is the integrity of its competition. Unfortunately, a system that might – could – allow teams to manipulate the timing of a player’s return from injury to gain a competitive advantage is a problem whether they want to acknowledge it or not.
The fact that so many fans on so many forums are up in arms should be a red flag.
If Vegas wins again, you can be sure the outrage will only increase. In March, the NHL’s executive committee of general managers spent about 90 seconds discussing the issue, according to Daly. At some point this will have to become a serious item on the agenda and give rise to serious debate. Because the remedy, as stated above, is not that difficult.
Naturally, any changes will need to be addressed with the NHL Players’ Association and will require an amendment to the collective bargaining agreement. But the collective bargaining agreement can be changed on the fly, if there is a desire on both sides to resolve what is increasingly becoming a hot spot for NHL customers/fans.
Oh, and in case you were wondering about the actual play on the ice, the early action was some great hockey. Competitive, uncompromising – exactly what you really hope for this time of year. This looks like it could be a great series. Maybe it will be seven o’clock. Hopefully none of the drama in Vegas overshadows the action on the ice.
Because that would be unfortunate – and completely unnecessary too.
(Photo by Mark Stone: Sam Hodde/Getty Images)